Skytrac's Edinburgh Depot

[Jonfun]

...appears to be closing, with the loss of at least 8 jobs. For the benefit of anyone unfamiliar, Skytrac are the company who provide First Transpennine Express' outsourced onboard catering.

From the RMT:

JUST DAYS after yet more exorbitant rail fare rises, Scottish railway staff are to be sacked in the name of name of making money.

Eight onboard hosts working for contractors Skytrac, based in Edinburgh Waverley and working on First TPE services, have been issued with redundancy notices, the staff have been told that they were being made redundant over what amounts to the simple issue of access to hot water and would have to find new jobs.

Their employer, Skytrac Rail Solutions, who have paid no rent to ScotRail for using their catering depot for the last seven years , have now been asked to leave the premises by the ScotRail operators. Skytrac is the catering provider for First TransPennine Express, who run from Edinburgh and Glasgow to Manchester Airport. A Standard Class Anytime return on this route costs £131.80 – a First Class equivalent costs a whopping £253.60

Skytrac says that redundancies were unavoidable, as there’s nowhere for them to get hot water for the tea and coffee service – a point which the union fundamentally disputes and which could easily be sorted out between First and the company. RMT is of the opinion that the staff have lost their jobs because of what amounts to a penny-piching row between First and Skytrac.

However, Skytrac now plan to use Manchester-based staff who will stay in hotels in Edinburgh at a cost of between £50-£500 per night, which over the course of a year would work out at 3 members of staff wages for one person. These staff will need exactly the same facilities as they do now, making a mockery of the whole justification for the redundancies.

Sad to hear of job losses - obviously this is from the RMT so it'll be far from neutral, but lodging staff from Manchester seems a bizarre move. I can't quite understand from this article quite how Edinburgh staff can't get hot water but Manchester staff can, but I assume there'll be various detail omitted somewhere along the line?

 

[najaB]

I can't quite understand from this article quite how Edinburgh staff can't get hot water but Manchester staff can, but I assume there'll be various detail omitted somewhere along the line?

Maybe they'll be awake all night boiling it in the hotel kettle?

 

[SqUaShIe P]

I've heard a little bit about this from some of the TPE onboard hosts. From what I have heard, Its tied in with First Group losing the Scot Rail franchise. FSR have always allowed FTPE to use their facilities, but with it no longer being First, Skytrac would have to pay for somewhere.
It does all seem rather petty. It shouldnt be that hard to sort out somewhere to get hot water, thats got to be better than making staff redundant.
Also, Skytrac have recently made a bunch of other redundancies to those joining the company most recently. Im not sure how many people it involves though.

From the RMT quote "Skytrac Rail Solutions, who have paid no rent to ScotRail for using their catering depot for the last seven years"... Its only been Skytrac for a few years, It would guess it was Rail Gourmet before that.

 

[Crossover]

It may have been this that a guard of a TPE service I was on the other day round the Yorkshire area was talking about - there was certainly some discussion between the guard and a fellow passenger (I assume off duty staff) about catering, possible redundancies and how some of the catering service may be getting culled.

Pretty bad news for the staff - TPE aren't exactly over-doing the catering as it is...

 

[185]

Almost 15 years to the day when Transpennine's last catering staff screw up occurred.

1999, RailGourmet lost the contract to Lighthouse Catering, a rubbishy one-man contractor like SkyTrac Catering. Northern Spirit Transpennine gave the contract to a pair of 22-year old crooks with no interest in meeting the contractual minimum terms. The contract manager was later sacked when it was revealed he was paid a large sum by Lighthouse. The company went bust leaving 74 out of work, including me.

Here we are, 15 years later with greedy managers from FTPE who have financial stakes in the company (Antony Belchem, senior manager, FTPE is a director of SkyTrac Ltd).

Will they ever learn?
https://exiledmackem.wordpress.com/...-penny-pinching-row-between-scotrail-and-tpe/

 

[scotraildriver]

First have really spat the dummy on losing Scotrail. They have been very obstructive to staff with information on what is happening, almost paranoid about debranding but today I witnessed conductors being told to colour out the F on their badges with tipp ex!!!!