Connaught staff made redundant by conference call

Seven hundred Connaught staff have been made redundant by administrator KPMG.

Connaught Partnerships, the part of the business in administration, employs 4,400 staff, and 2,500 will move across to Morgan Sindall, which bought £28m of ex-Connaught contracts last night. The remaining 1,200 still await their fate.

The experience of some of the staff was made even worse by the fact that they were informed of their redundancy by conference call.

KPMG said: ”While the administrators made every effort to communicate with staff in person, the large number of staff and wide geographic spread across the country necessitated a series of telephone calls yesterday to ensure staff were informed of redundancies as soon as possible.”

Brian Green, restructuring partner at KPMG and joint administrator, said:  “Immediately following appointment we conducted a commercial review of the staffing needs of the business and shortly thereafter took the decision to make around 700 staff redundant.

“As announced earlier today, the majority of contracts have been acquired by Morgan Sindall.  The administrators continue to negotiate the novation of the remaining contracts to other providers and remain hopeful that further staff within Connaught Partnerships Ltd will be transferred to alternative providers.”

An employee helpline has been set up at 0845 0176699.