The construction and services company Carillion has gone into compulsory liquidation – leaving thousands of jobs at risks and vital srvices to be maintained.
It looks as though the government will be providing funds to maintain Carillion’s public services. Carillion, which employs 20,000 people in the UK, recently signed a huge government contract for the HS2 rail project. It also has a large portfolio of contracts that involve services to various public institutions such as prisons, schools and hospitals.
Carillion has the contract from Great Western Hospital’s Private Finance Initiative provider for the hospital’s food, cleaning and maintenance. All vital services for the proper running of a large NHS acute hospital.
A statement from GWH this morning (January 15) reads:
“We have planned in advance for such a situation, working closely with our PFI partners, and our teams are now working hard to ensure services provided by Carillion continue as normal.
“Although this is a developing situation, we fully expect services at GWH to continue as normal throughout today and the remainder of this week, and for there to be minimal disruption to patients or visitors.
“Our Carillion colleagues, many of whom have worked with the Trust for many years, are just as much a part of our team as our own staff and, while this may be an unsettling time, we thank them for their continued support.
“We remain in close contact with our PFI provider, which holds the contract with Carillion, and have been given assurances that all staff will continue to be paid as normal.”
Apart from worries about the security of jobs in some sectors of Carillion’s business, there is also anxiety about the deficit in their pension fund, which stands at almost £600million.The accountancy firm PricewaterhouseCoopers is expected to be appointed as special managers to handle Carillion’s collapse.