By Kirsty Topping
ALMOST all of the staff at Edinburgh’s beleaguered tram firm have applied for voluntary redundancy, amid ongoing fears about the future of the project.
Insiders say around 50 members of staff at TIE have volunteered to go out of a total workforce of between 65 to 70.
Last month it was reported that TIE planned to make half the workforce redundand in a bid to cut costs.
TIE lost a number of high-profile staff in recent weeks, including its chief executive, Richard Jeffrey, and director of communications, Mandy Haeburn-Little.
Sources close to the beleaguered trams project had originally suggested that project managers would be among the first to leave when the redundancy plans were announced.
One insider said: “There’s no need for so many project managers. You would have one guy drilling in a hole and two guys standing over him watching.”
Deputy council leader Steve Cardownie reacted to the redundancy claims, saying: “It doesn’t surprise me – TIE’s days are numbered. It’s not before time – it’s been in existence for too long.
“Questions have to be asked about the four council directors on the board, about their role and what they have done.
“They have done the council a disservice. Why did they not alert us to the problems years ago?”
A spokesman for TIE refused to comment on the applications for voluntary redundancy, saying they were “personal HR matters”.
Earlier this year the company reacted angrily to claims that staff morale had hit rock bottom, with the majority of employees trying to get out of the company. One former member of staff said: “There’s a lot of unhappy people there.
“The people who run TIE are on enormous salaries, upwards of 120,000, 130,000 or 150,000. If you’re in a job like that maybe it’s not as bad as when you’re taking home a more average salary.”
