The Ticket Collector

NXEC to axe 95 jobs.

RAIL operator National Express East Coast, which took over from GNER in December, revealed today it was to cut almost 100 jobs in its York HQ to ensure it was “fit for the future.”

Company Spindoctor Alan Hyde said the cutbacks followed a review of its organisational structure. “The review will ensure that we have the right people in the right roles doing the right things,” he said.
He said in some areas, such as finance and payroll, there would be some “consolidation” with National Express Group, following a programme to integrate the coach, bus and rail businesses.
But he reiterated the company’s commitment to keeping the rail HQ in York, and said it expected to recruit more frontline staff as it runs more services over coming years. He said 95 managerial and clerical posts in “back-office” areas were expected to be cut - just under a quarter of the company’s total York workforce of about 400 people. “The actual number of people affected is likely to be fewer, due to current clerical vacancies and use of agency staff.”
A UNION leader claimed today that National Express East Coast might be breaching franchise rules with some of the job losses.
Brian Brock, senior regional organiser with the TSSA union, which represents many of the people losing their jobs, said that the merging of staff roles between the company’s railway, coach and bus operations appeared to breach Clause 25.
He said the clause stated that it should be possible for someone to take over a franchise immediately at any time, but this would be impossible if staff were integrated across more than one business.
He said the point had been argued yesterday with management. “They said: It’s all right. We’ve cleared it’- presumably with the Government. But if that is so, it raises questions about the Government’s position.”
He said the matter had been passed to TSSA’s lawyers to look into.