WORKERS at York-based Jarvis Fastline, a division of the ill-fated Jarvis Group, are finally set to learn whether they should go to work and whether they will get paid.

The maintenance and freight group called in administrators last Thursday, putting as many as 2,000 jobs at risk, including about 350 from York.

But while Deloitte managers were appointed administrators of Jarvis Plc and its subsidiary, Jarvis Accommodation Services Ltd, people working for Jarvis Fastline had no idea who to turn to for information or help.

Jarvis Fastline is a supplier of on-track machines, small plant, transport and freight services to the UK’s railway infrastructure.

But for five days, while no administrator had been appointed for this Jarvis division, the workers, mostly from the RMT Union, complained they were left “in limbo”.

Bill Rawcliffe, the York and district branch chairman of the RMT, said no officials were prepared to talk to them – from management, union head office or Jarvis administrators.

He said: “It’s disgraceful. We have had people here in tears with new mortgages and young families. They were getting mixed messages. Some were told to report to their depots, others were told to go home. No one knows whether they are going to get the pay due to them on Thursday.”

A spokeswoman for Deloitte has now confirmed to The Press that it has been appointed “interim receiver-manager” for Jarvis Rail Fastline Ltd. Mr Rawcliffe said he eagerly awaited the outcome of talks arranged yesterday between Deloitte and RMT officials.

Jarvis was hit hard by Network Rail’s decision last year to defer, then cut its five-year track renewal programme by 30 per cent. The company undertook a £3 million restructuring plan, which cost 450 jobs nationally, 50 of them in York, but still had to brace itself for a £5 million operating loss.

Mr Rawcliffe feared that as jobs at Network Rail were now under pressure, his members’ plight would be forgotten as the infrastructure group tried to take on their jobs in-house.

He said Jarvis shed 2,000 jobs over the past 18 months – more than would be suffered by Network Rail. “We have taken our job losses and been reorganised into a size that can cope with the workload.”