Railcare axe more Milton Keynes jobs

Further jobs have been axed at rail refurbishment firm Railcare's Milton Keynes' site, while those still working say they have not been paid in full.

Thirteen more redundancies have been announced at the company's Wolverton works, on top of the 118 made after it called in administrators in July.

Current employees said they have only had sporadic payments since June.

Administrators BDO said confirmed work was lower than expected and there were "insufficient funds" to pay workers.

About 150 skilled jobs in Wolverton and Springburn, in Glasgow were axed last month after the collapse of a planned takeover by a German company.

At the time, BDO's business restructuring partner Kim Rayment said it was "hopeful" that continued customer spending would allow the company to trade through administration.

'Regrettable' losses

On Wednesday, it said a further 13 losses were "regrettable".

"The level of customer work confirmed has been below what was anticipated," a statement said.

Those still working said they had experienced problems getting paid since June.

Employee David Smith said: "We all hoped there was enough money in the kitty to keep things buoyant until all the work comes in and then things would kick off again."

BDO said payment had started to come in for future work so it was in a position to pay staff wages for the period between 1 and 10 August.

"[But] at present, there are insufficient funds to be able to pay staff wages in arrears for the month leading up to administration," the statement added.

"We understand that this will have caused hardship."

Bob Crow, general secretary of the Rail Maritime and Transport Union (RMT), said it was "trying everything possible" to support the workers but "what they have done in Wolverton is vandalism on a massive scale".