CityBus job losses reveal another broken Conservative promise

By Luke Pollard, on Friday, January 15, 2010

Go-Ahead, the new owners of Plymouth CityBus today announced 15 job losses from the company despite assurances made by the Tory Council when they sold the company that there would be no job cuts for six months. Tonight there are 15 families who will worry about how they are to pay the bills tonight – all because Plymouth’s Tory Council broke its promise and sold CityBus against the will of the people, says Luke Pollard, Labour Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for South West Devon.

The Conservatives who forced through the sale should be mightily ashamed of themselves today. Having committed to safeguard jobs under the new owner these redundancies confirmed everything we needed to know about Tory promises – that they are not worth the paper they are written on. They promised not to sell CityBus and they broke that promise and sold the company. They promised there would be no job losses for six months. Today 15 people will have to go home and tell their families that they won’t have a job soon. So much for Tory assurances the company’s staff would be in safe hands.

My colleague, Cllr Tudor Evans, Leader of the Labour Group on Plymouth City Council, sums up the situation perfectly. “We are used to Tories breaking their promises on pools, Life Centre and so on but this takes the biscuit,” he said. “When they forced through the sale of CityBus in the teeth of public opinion, they promised job safety for six months. 45 days later, it’s another broken promise. It’s bad for the City, terrible for democracy but most of all its tragic for the employees of CityBus.”

David Cameron often remarks that if he wins the General Election he will model his government on the work of Conservative Councils. I do hope he doesn’t seek to model government on how Plymouth is run. Rather than taking lessons on public administration from Cllr Vivien Pengelly, Plymouth’s Tory Leader, he should be heartedly ashamed of Plymouth’s Conservative-run Council. I am. I wonder how she will respond to the job losses? Will she apologise for misleading the people of Plymouth with false assurances? Let’s see.

When we were fighting against the sale Labour warned that jobs would be lost, routes would be cut and fares would rise if CityBus was sold. The Leader of the Conservative Council denied that this would be case and Tories accused Labour of scaremongering. Today, we’ve seen one of those predictions come true – much sooner than we expected. How much longer will it be before fares go up and routes close? And how many more drivers, mechanics and office staff will be sacked in the future?

On Thursday, May 6 we have the chance to boot out the architect of the sale of CityBus, Cllr Vivien Pengelly, and send a message to Plymouth Tories that they cannot govern for themselves and their pet projects. Use your vote wisely – and ask yourself what other promises and assurances the Tories are offering at the moment will turn out to be lies, bluster and spin?

Luke Pollard is Labour’s Prospective Candidate for South West Devon. Visit his website.

Come and enjoy Devon – book a hotel and get away!

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PRSD

Acquired Rights Directive

The Acquired Rights Directive is the name given to Council Directive 77/187 of 14 February 1977, which aims at ‘the approximation of the laws of the Member States relating to the safeguarding of employees’ rights in the event of transfers of undertakings, businesses or parts of businesses’ (as amended by Directive 98/50/EC of 29 June 1998; consolidated in Directive 2001/23 of 12 March 2001).

The Directive aims to regulate transfer of an undertaking by ensuring that terms and conditions of employment are maintained for the employees affected. For collective agreements, Article 3(3) stipulates that this protection should last until ‘the date of termination or expiry of the collective agreement or the entry into force or application of another collective agreement.’ However, Member States may limit the period for observing such terms and conditions, with the proviso that it shall not be less than one year. The Directive had important implications for privatisation and contracting-out policies in some Member States. If privatisation includes the transfer of part of the state-owned firm with its workforce, this normally means that the employees transferred benefit from the protection of the Directive. The same happens when the provision of public services is contracted-out to private enterprises which undertake to employ the existing workforce.

http://www.eurofound.europa.eu/areas/industrialrel...

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Cptn

Does any know why TUPE doesn't apply with the way CityBus was sold?

Luke Pollard

I think it is worth being clear about this, the excellent trade union at CityBus, Unite, fought this sale all the way from day one. As did Labour. Over 25,000 people signed petitions against the sale of CityBus and the Tory-run Council pushed the sale through despite being elected promising not to sell CityBus. The responsibility for these job losses and for the higher fares, older buses and route closures we expect in the future lies firmly with the Conservative Council. We'll be trying to work with the new owners to safeguard routes but the Tories sold the company and the city down the river and they should carry the responsibility for the effects. They were warned this would happen and pushed ahead anyway.

graham

Luke,
Thanks for the info, I'm shocked that TUPE doesn't apply in this and that the Unions allowed it to happen.

What is TUPE?

Transfer of undertakings (TUPE)
(from ACAS http://www.acas.org.uk/index.aspx?articleid=1655)

The Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations (TUPE) protects employees' terms and conditions of employment when a business is transferred from one owner to another. Employees of the previous owner when the business changes hands automatically become employees of the new employer on the same terms and conditions. It's as if their employment contracts had originally been made with the new employer. Their continuity of service and any other rights are all preserved. Both old and new employers are required to inform and consult employees affected directly or indirectly by the transfer.

Which transfers are covered?

TUPE applies when an undertaking or part of it is transferred from one employer to another, eg:

* where all or part of a sole trader's business or partnership is sold or otherwise transferred
* where a company, or part of it, is bought or acquired by another (if the second company buys or acquires the assets and then runs the business rather than acquiring the shares only)
* where two companies cease to exist and combine to form a third
* where a contract to provide goods or services is transferred in circumstances which amount to the transfer of a business or undertaking to a new employer.

TUPE can apply regardless of the size of the transferred undertaking, ie from large organisations employing thousands of employees to small businesses like a village shop with one assistant.

TUPE does not apply to:

* transfers by share take-over because, when a company's shares are sold to new shareholders, there is no transfer of the business: the same company continues to be the employer
* transfer of assets only (eg the sale of equipment alone wouldn't be covered but the sale of a going concern including equipment would be covered)
* transfer of a contract to provide goods or services where this doesn't involve the transfer of a business or part of a business
* transfers of undertakings situated outside the UK.

From Luke
"sadly the way in which the company was sold means they are not subject to TUPE. I know, it is crazy. But that's the Tory Council for you. They hardly have workers' rights as a core value do they?"