Negotiations led by construction union UCATT have preserved the jobs of the majority of workers based in the North West who were formerly employed by failed housing maintenance company Kinetics.

In early June, Kinetics placed its North West part of the business into administration, affecting 370 workers.

Kinetics biggest client in the North West was housing association Liverpool Mutual Homes. Following highly complicated joint union negotiations led by UCATT, agreement was finally reached for over 200 jobs to be directly transferred to Liverpool Mutual Homes.

The agreement as well as preserving jobs also ensured that the workers received retrospective back pay from 9th June, continuity of service and the preservation of existing terms and conditions.

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Ren Davies, North West Regional Official for UCATT, who led the joint union negotiations, said: "This was an excellent result. Through the workers high profile campaign to save their jobs and long and complicated negotiations, we have secured the best possible result for the workers and the tenants of Liverpool Mutual Homes."

UCATT have also been successful in saving a further 60 plus jobs in Preston where the former Kinetics workers have undertaken a TUPE transfer to local company HT Forest.

For the 100 workers whose jobs were unable to be transferred UCATT will be applying to the employment tribunal for a protective award, due to Kinetics failure to consult on the redundancies.

Jimmy Woods, Acting Regional Secretary of UCATT North West, said: "This is yet another example of the inherent problems with the private sector running public services. Private companies can go bust and communities can be left without essential services. The decision to take work back in-house and the preservation of the majority of the jobs is totally the right decision and has averted a crisis for thousands of social housing tenants."

(CD)