Cycling centre staff on Glasgow Green to protest being made redundant mid-shift

Employees at a cycling centre on Glasgow Green were made redundant this week after receiving their letters of dismissal on Wednesday afternoon.

The dismissals came into effect as of close of business - meaning the employees were out of a job the minute their shift ended.

Despite making employees at the site redundant on Wednesday, the site is still open this week - as Free Wheel North posted their opening hours on Facebook, writing: “We have been closed a bit recently due to being short staffed, staff on leave and going through some difficult times.”

In protest, the employees started a campaign group last month, Save Our Cycling Centre, and will be staging a protest at the Free Wheel North site on Glasgow Green this Sunday (25 September) at 1pm.

A spokesperson for the Unite the Union branch, which the redundant workers are members of, said: “Only hours after sacking staff because the centre was supposedly an economic basket case, FWN social media posted that the centre would re-open in a matter of days and would be better than ever.

“FWN doesn’t seem to have noticed that their Facebook post demolished their case for redundancies. We’ll be back.”

A redundancy consultation period was held prior to the notices of dismissal - but lasted only four days and held only two consultation meetings before employees were handed their notices of dismissal.

Management of Free Wheel North claimed that the site was losing £4500 a month from a reserves analysis document.

In an updated new analysis document, monthly losses were more than double that of their original figure, totalling £9763.52.

According to the second version of the document, £105,671.49 was spent on the Glasgow Green site in the first eight months of 2022 - although employees dispute ever seeing or hearing of such investment.

They also claim no alternatives were offered to employees facing redundancies by Free Wheel North - despite discussions with two other cycling firms offering to take over the centre earlier in the year.

Employees were told that the previous offers made by cycling firms would not be taken up due to the current financial position of the centre.

A SOCC spokesperson said:“FWN claims that the cycling centre is in terminal decline. But we believe that it has a future.

“If FWN cannot run the centre properly, they should hand it over to another cycling organisation which can.

“We want the lease for the site transferred to another cycling organisation, all staff dismissed in recent months re-engaged, and funding released for the new leaseholder”

Save our Cycling Centre will meet with representatives from Glasgow City Council to discuss Free Wheel North’s council lease for the Glasgow Green site.

Employees claim that the cycling centre has breached the lease.

Members of Save our Cycling Centre will also meet with Nicola Sturgeon as their constituency MSP in late September to discuss the issue.

Free Wheel North have been contacted for comment.