{"id":14494,"date":"2018-01-26T15:15:57","date_gmt":"2018-01-26T15:15:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=14494"},"modified":"2020-11-12T12:59:11","modified_gmt":"2020-11-12T12:59:11","slug":"carillion-national-scandal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=14494","title":{"rendered":"Carillion: \u00e2\u20ac\u0098National scandal\u00e2\u20ac\u2122"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

Carillion dished out at least \u00c2\u0141500m to shareholders over the seven years prior to its collapse, even as its pension fund deficit grew to nearly \u00c2\u0141600m.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The analysis of Carillion\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s books, undertaken by the House of Commons Library and commissioned by Labour, is a conservative estimate of the firm\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s pension black hole.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

A private analysis puts the figure at a whopping \u00c2\u01412.6bn.<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Meanwhile transport secretary Chris Grayling awarded Carillion<\/a> a \u00c2\u014162m contract in November, even though the Ministry of Defence had decided a month earlier to stop giving the indebted firm work.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

A major profit warning had been issued in July \u00e2\u20ac\u201c four months before Grayling handed the doomed company millions of pounds of public sector<\/a> work.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Between 2010 and 2017, Carillion paid \u00c2\u0141500.1m to investors. But by the time the firm imploded its pensions deficit had grown from \u00c2\u0141200m in 2015 to at least \u00c2\u0141587m \u00e2\u20ac\u201c with reports that the true figure could be much higher.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Shadow business secretary Rebecca Long-Bailey said, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt is a national scandal that Carillion paid out similar sums in dividends that could have filled the gaping hole in its pension fund.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt also speaks volumes for the corporate governance that has been allowed to occur over the last seven years of Tory economic failure.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Pension scheme raid <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Troublingly, Carillion\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s bosses made \u00c2\u0141225m raid on the pension scheme<\/a> during the summer in an attempt to bolster the company\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s finances.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The firm\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s pensions trustees were forced to lower pension payouts, cut benefits and suspend payment for eight months.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Months earlier, the board had approved a \u00c2\u014179.3m dividend to shareholders.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe Tories stood by and watched as Carillion\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s greedy bosses sank the company while paying out massive dividends to themselves and shareholders at the expense of their employees\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 hard-earned pensions,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Unite assistant general secretary Gail Cartmail said.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe government has to shoulder its share of responsibility for the wreckage, which threatens to pull the jobs and pensions of thousands of workers under with it.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

She added, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt was ministers who, amid clear profit warnings, ignored the alarm bells and allowed Carillion\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s top executives to continue steering people\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s futures towards the rocks. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe government\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s claim to be on the side of working people has been exposed as a pernicious untruth.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Yesterday Labour forced a vote compelling the government to release withheld risk assessments<\/a> on Carillion.
\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Carillion dished out at least \u00c2\u0141500m to shareholders over the seven years prior to its collapse, even as its pension fund deficit grew to nearly \u00c2\u0141600m.   The analysis of Carillion\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s books, undertaken by the House of Commons Library and commissioned by Labour, is a conservative estimate of the firm\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s pension black hole.   A […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2373,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17],"tags":[855,270],"wps_subtitle":"Shareholders scoop up as pension fund raided","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14494"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14494"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14494\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26438,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14494\/revisions\/26438"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2373"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14494"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14494"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14494"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}