Customers told to collect City Link parcels

More than 2,300 workers were sacked after last-ditch efforts to rescue the parcel company failed this week.

This included 399 employees from across the West Midlands and means 30,000 parcels have been left stranded at City Link's 52 depots nationwide.

Customers who have sent parcels and intended recipients have been advised to collect their items between 8am and 8pm, with depots expected to remain open until 'approximately' January 6.

Meanwhile Business Secretary Vince Cable said the Government is ready to help the newly-unemployed workers.

He said: "This is very sad news for the City Link workers and their families at a particularly difficult time of year.

"The Government has put arrangements in place to help employees who are made redundant and we stand ready to help.

"City Link employees and self-employed drivers who have their contracts terminated as a result of City Link's administration will be able to access the Government's rapid response service, which draws together local partners such as Jobcentre Plus and the skills bodies to deliver support for each person affected."

A Facebook page has been set-up to link-up companies with suitable vacancies with those who have been made redundant.

And Staffordshire-based APC Overnight has said it would give priority to former City Link staff in filling up to 100 vacancies at its national sorting centre in Cannock.

Many of City Link's employees learnt of the company's collapse on Christmas Day and administrators from Ernst & Young announced the 2,356 redundancies on New Year's Eve.

RMT union boss Mick Cash had pleaded for more time for what he said was a 'credible bid' to salvage the company.

But administrators from Ernst & Young said the offer, from an unnamed consortium, 'significantly undervalued' the assets of City Link and offered no money up front.

The administrators made a counter-proposal but said 'the consortium, despite attempts to make them reconsider, declined to amend their original offer'..

At City Link's Wednesbury depot, 47 staff have lost their jobs, with just four kept on. At Stone in Staffordshire, 35 have gone with six remaining. At Birmingham 38 out of 43 have gone. While at City Link's Coventry headquarters 279 staff have been sacked, leaving just nine.

In total, just 371 people have been kept on to deal with the few thousand parcels remaining within the network and to help the administrators sell the assets and wind down the company.