More jobs in the Midlands could go after administrators for the housing maintenance firm Rok announced a fresh wave of cuts.
Various parts of the Rok group, which has offices in Birmingham, Stafford and Warwick, collapsed earlier this week although its construction and social housing arm are continuing to trade as PwC attempts to sell them as a going concern.
PwC said after reviewing “the ongoing requirements of the business in light of dialogue with interested parties approximately 1,800 redundancies have been announced” from Rok’s 3,800-strong workforce.
Birmingham-based Rob Hunt, partner and joint administrator at PwC, said: “Regrettably, the redundancies made today were necessary as it became clear in the last 24 hours that we were not going to be able to find a purchaser for these parts of the group.
“Operations cannot continue and hence we have had to take steps to close both the maintenance and improvements division as well as the Scottish construction division. We have retained a small workforce to assist us in this process.
“We have set up an employee relations helpline and are working closely with employees affected by this decision to ensure they receive the support they need during this difficult time to assist with their claims for redundancy and other compensatory payments. Staff affected by this will be paid for the period since we were appointed including today (Tuesday).
“As we have already committed, those employees who continue to be employed by the company and attend work will continue to be paid, as normal.
“We continue to maintain a dialogue with parties interested in the construction and social housing business in England. This division employs approximately 500 people and we expect to have further updates during this week.”
