WORKERS at a clinical waste firm in North Lanarkshire arrived at work this morning to be told they were being made redundant.
Some 150 employees at Healthcare Environmental Services Ltd (HES) arrived to discuss their future at Hassockrigg Eco Park in Shotts.
Meetings were held throughout the morning before employees began emerging from the plant clutching redundancy notices.
Workers said they were “gutted” at the news and had received no warning. One driver called Gary said: "I’ve been here 15 years. We’ll not get paid.” Another said: “The only communication we’ve had is in a text on Christmas Eve.”
In a letter given to employees, managing director Garry Pettigrew said it was due to circumstances "outwith our control".
Employees had earlier been sent text messages warning them they might not be paid this week, with HES claiming its bank had refused to release funds.
The letter said: "I write to you to inform you that your position in the company will be made redundant with immediate effect.
"I apologise that there have been no previous consultations on this matter, however there are unforeseen circumstances that have proven to be outwith our control".
The company has responsibility for disposing of clinical waste from every hospital, GP's surgery, dental practice and pharmacy in Scotland.
The company, which has 350 staff across the UK, stopped serving the NHS in Scotland after being plunged into financial difficulty in the wake of allegations of stockpiling hundreds of tonnes of waste at sites in England.
The Environment Agency is investigating a breach of waste regulations while HES blamed a lack of UK incinerator capacity for the crisis.
Temporary storage was put in place at NHS sites across Scotland earlier this month to cope with a potential backlog of clinical waste.
Mr Pettigrew said earlier this month that the issues the company had faced had "destroyed this business".
It comes after NHS Scotland confirmed HES would lose its contract with them in April 2019, prompting the firm to announce that its banking facility had been cut off.
In October, HES was stripped of 17 contracts with NHS trusts in England after reports that tonnes of clinical waste piled up at its sites. HES said that north of the border it had attempted to service several NHS sites, but were refused access and the decision was taken to stop servicing the health service until a way forward was agreed.
Mr Pettigrew said two weeks ago: "For the last ten weeks in Scotland the NHS have been ready to kick in their contingency plan and that has undermined out viability and keeping our staff.
"Over the last three weeks trailers were appearing at sites with our competitor's names on them, which makes this unviable at every level."
“We were servicing NHS Scotland’s sites under a restricted service until we were refused access on Friday, and the constant threat of contingency plans being put into place affected our ability to maintain staffing levels."
National Services Scotland said interim contingency arrangements were put in place to ensure NHS Scotland services to the public were maintained.
NSS said three principal contractors would now deal with waste at 28 larger acute sites across Scotland, while a number of smaller contractors would provide collection services to more than 4,000 community sites.
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