Over 100 workers at Scottish Water company face redundancies before Christmas

Edinburgh staff at a company in the Scottish Water group face compulsory redundancies before Christmas, a Union has warned.

Emma Phillips, Regional Organiser for Unison

Workers at Business Stream, which provides water and sewerage services, revealed they were told by bosses in meetings that dozens of jobs will go.

Unison has raised fears that over 100 staff at the Edinburgh park site, which has 300 staff in total, are set to be laid off and has branded the proposed redundancies ‘appalling’.

One worker for the company based at Edinburgh Park told the Evening News: “We were pulled into team meetings on Friday then into one-to-one consultation sessions on the same day, without notice. Up to 130 could be losing their jobs.

“The company have reported massive profits, and they are supposed to have a no compulsory redundancy policy in line with Scottish Government policy. I think they are offloading the jobs to hire staff in India. We were promised training staff overseas wouldn’t affect our jobs.”

A PR for the subsidiary of the Scottish Water Group, registered as Scottish Water Business Stream Holdings Ltd, claimed the company is consulting staff on proposals for a restructure which will affect fewer than 15 people.

However, the union accused the firm of a lack of transparency and said that up to 139 staff would be impacted. Unison stewards have also raised fears that the firm is outsourcing the jobs to India.

Emma Phillips, Regional Organiser at UNISON said: “The proposals came to us today but they refused to tell us exactly how many people they are going to make redundant.

"There are 139 people impacted, we know that. We don’t know exactly how many will lose their jobs. But I know more than 15 jobs are under threat and not everyone will be able to be redeployed into new jobs.”

“Business Stream are owned by Scottish Water so we would expect them to uphold the Scottish Government policy on no compulsory redundancies.”

“It’s appalling when people have been working so hard under the most difficult circumstances and now their jobs are under threat. We are very concerned. It’s putting huge stress on staff. Now they face having no job with Christmas coming up.

“The company are not being fair or transparent. They have refused to tell us exactly how many people will lose their jobs. And they said they have no intention of giving people the chance to take voluntary redundancies or exploring the furlough scheme.”

“Compulsory redundancy should be the last option.. People could be retrained. We are concerned they could be outsourcing jobs to India. We would ask them to keep jobs here in Edinburgh.”

A spokesperson for Business Stream, commented; “The ongoing Covid-19 pandemic and containment measures are presenting unprecedented challenges to businesses and the wider economy across the UK - and we are not immune to these challenges.

“Over the past few months we have implemented a number of measures to limit the impact on our people but we are currently consulting on proposals for a restructure, which will directly impact fewer than 15 roles across the business. We are providing support to the individuals who are impacted and we will work with them to find alternative roles wherever possible.”

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