Serco must be stopped from Highland Clearances of staff - Cortes

TSSA today lambasted Serco Caledonian Sleeper after the company announced it was moving jobs from Inverness to Glasgow – making Highlands based staff redundant.

Serco are moving three Service Delivery Manager posts from Inverness to Glasgow, making staff redundant. TSSA say that efforts to persuade the company to keep staff in post in Inverness have been rebuffed with the company determined to move all the posts to Glasgow. Unlike ScotRail a “No Compulsory Redundancies” policy does not exist in Serco’s contract with the Scottish Government.

TSSA are angry that as well as moving jobs from Inverness to Glasgow Serco have also decided to create seven new Caledonian Sleeper posts in Glasgow – even though some of those roles have traditionally been based in Inverness.

Five new Guest Ambassador posts are being created in Glasgow – even though these roles are normally based in Inverness.

In addition 2 new Coordinator roles are being created in Glasgow. TSSA argue that these posts could have been based in Inverness, or carried out remotely, potentially saving two of the Service Delivery Managers from redundancy.

TSSA General Secretary Manuel Cortes said, “Serco are wilfully and unnecessarily making Inverness workers unemployed. They could choose to keep the Service Delivery Manager jobs in Inverness or to base the new roles in Inverness. Instead, they’re centralising their jobs away from the Highlands into Glasgow, with no thought of the consequences of unemployment for their loyal workers.

“But let’s be real, the Scottish Government must take a full share of the blame here. It’s their contract with Serco that failed to include a No Compulsory Redundancies clause, which is why these Inverness based staff are losing their jobs.

“Transport Minister Jenny Gilruth must step in right now to save these jobs from Serco’s latter-day Highland Clearances!”