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Construction Industry Training Board betrayed

CITB’s betrayal of its workforce in Norfolk and across the UK brutally confirmed

 

Unite has said that the Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) is betraying 300 of its staff by effectively making them redundant. This follows warnings from Unite that outsourcing marked the beginning of the end for the CITB.

 

The workers most of whom have worked at the CITB for many years are employed in roles including: human resources, finance, procurement, technology, apprenticeship processing and some customer operations roles, were told last month that their jobs will be transferred to Shared Service Connected Ltd (SSCL) from 1 February 2019.

 

Two hundred Norfolk workers affected

 

Two hundred of the affected workers are based in the CITB’s current headquarters at Bircham Newton in Norfolk, with the remaining staff employed in London, Thurmaston in Leicestershire, Bridgend in Wales and Inchinnan in Scotland.

 

SSCL has this week confirmed that to continue their employment the workforce will be principally required to transfer to its site in York, with the possibility of some staff being transferred to its other sites in Newcastle, Blackpool, Warrington and Newport in Wales.

 

SSCL also has two sites in India and it has not been ruled out that some CITB’s functions could be transferred to the sub-continent.

 

Near impossible commute

 

This would result in the vast majority of the affected staff having a near impossible commute to work. Unite has described the process as not a transfer of work but the CITB outsourcing a redundancy scheme.

 

Unite held a meeting with SSCL today (December 13) which confirmed under their current proposals that all of the CITB staff will transfer to its sites by October 2019.

 

Unite has put forward a case to the CITB and SSCL to consider preserving jobs in the west Norfolk area, but the union is not optimistic that their proposals will even receive a second glance.

 

Staff betrayed

 

Unite regional coordinating officer Mark Robinson said: “The CITB’s staff have been betrayed by the organisation.

 

“The CITB’s board’s abject failure to require SSCL to open a Norfolk office demonstrates a complete disregard for its workers.

“The vast majority of the workforce have families and it will be impossible for them to relocate.

“At a time when major outsourcers such as Carillion have collapsed, Interserve is on life support and many organisations are insourcing their services; it is flying in the face of reason for the CITB to be undertaking a major outsourcing project.

“This has nothing to do with improving services and is all about political dogma.”

 

 

Cross posted from Unite's national website 13 December 2018

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