Railcare jobs to go in Glasgow and Milton Keynes

About 150 skilled jobs in Milton Keynes and Glasgow have been axed at rail engineering firm Railcare.

Railcare went into administration on Wednesday putting 500 jobs in jeopardy.

Rail union RMT said it was made aware that Railcare was in trouble after it failed to pay staff wages.

The cuts will affect employees at the company's sites in Wolverton, near Milton Keynes, and Springburn, Glasgow. It follows the collapse of a planned takeover by a German company.

'Distressing time'

Kim Rayment, business restructuring partner at administrators BDO, said 33 employees have been made redundant at Springburn and 118 have been made redundant at Wolverton.

He added: "The majority of staff remain at both sites and we are hopeful that continued customer spending will allow the company to trade through administration.

"We understand that this will be a distressing time for all concerned, and we will be working to provide what advice and support we can to affected employees.

"There are a number of interested prospective buyers, and the joint administrators are working to secure a successful long-term future for the business with the support of customers and remaining staff."

RMT general secretary Bob Crow said: "This is appalling news and RMT is demanding to know just what Vince Cable (Business Secretary) and his department have been up to following their pledges to support the workforce at Railcare in getting through this short term cash flow crisis.

"This scandal makes a mockery of the government's paper pledges to support British engineering jobs."

Business Secretary Vince Cable said: "As soon as we heard Railcare was in difficulty the department got in touch to highlight the usual government support, recognising it is an important part of the railway industry supply chain.

"It's disappointing that we could not help and were unable to stop the company going into administration.

"Hopefully a buyer can still be found, so as many jobs and skills can be saved as possible."

Conservative Mark Lancaster, MP for Milton Keynes North, said: "Whilst today's news is thoroughly depressing , with a good order book from October, I am confident that the medium term future for Railcare is positive and that the decades old tradition of railway engineering in Wolverton will continue."