City Link bosses '˜took £350,000 out of company in months before collapse that cost Rotherham jobs'

Sacked City Link drivers who found out they were losing their jobs on Christmas Day have been given '˜another kick in the teeth' after it was revealed bosses took £350,000 out of the company before its collapse.
T-shirts are burnt outside the City Link Depot, Bradmarsh Way, Rotherham, after workers lost their jobs. Picture: Andrew RoeT-shirts are burnt outside the City Link Depot, Bradmarsh Way, Rotherham, after workers lost their jobs. Picture: Andrew Roe
T-shirts are burnt outside the City Link Depot, Bradmarsh Way, Rotherham, after workers lost their jobs. Picture: Andrew Roe

More than 30 workers in Rotherham were among 2,700 employees around the country who lost their jobs as a result of the collapse of the firm, announced on Christmas Day 2014.

Furious drivers burnt their uniforms in a protest outside their Rotherham depot last January.

Protesters outside the City Link Depot, Bradmarsh Way, Rotherham, after losing their jobs. Picture: Andrew RoeProtesters outside the City Link Depot, Bradmarsh Way, Rotherham, after losing their jobs. Picture: Andrew Roe
Protesters outside the City Link Depot, Bradmarsh Way, Rotherham, after losing their jobs. Picture: Andrew Roe
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It has now emerged a division of the Better Capital group which owned the company took almost £350,000 out of the firm in ‘consultancy fees’ in the months before the collapse.

The company’s accounts have revealed Better Capital received ‘directors’ fees and expenses from City Link Ltd of £345,141’ – on top of £428,015 in fees that had been claimed the previous year.

Mick Cash, general secretary of the RMT union, said: “This is a corporate scandal that refuses to go away.

“With the management knowing that City Link was going under they encouraged drivers to work through Christmas Eve in the knowledge they wouldn’t get paid while they were busy lining their own pockets.

Protesters outside the City Link Depot, Bradmarsh Way, Rotherham, after losing their jobs. Picture: Andrew RoeProtesters outside the City Link Depot, Bradmarsh Way, Rotherham, after losing their jobs. Picture: Andrew Roe
Protesters outside the City Link Depot, Bradmarsh Way, Rotherham, after losing their jobs. Picture: Andrew Roe
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“It’s another vicious kick in the teeth for the nearly 3,000 workers at City Link dumped on the stones.

“Today’s news shows again the raw and uncontrolled nature of bandit capitalism in Britain.”

Last year, former workers held a protest outside the gates of the City Link site at Bradmarsh Business Park.

Among those at the protest were self-employed drivers used on a contracted basis who are not included in the official redundancy figures.

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Drivers said they had worked for City Link for years but were ‘forced’ to become self-employed two years ago.

They said the business failure would hit around 15 to 20 self-employed drivers in South Yorkshire, who were owed thousands of pounds in pay at the time.

Administrators said the business had closed after making ‘substantial losses’.