WORKERS have accused the government of having “washed their hands” of thousands of people who lost their jobs after the collapse of Carillion.

Unite the Union has demanded a “root-and-branch reform” of company law after workers faced redundancy when the engineering giant fell in January 2018.

The union is currently taking forward approximately 220 cases of involving the company’s former workers to employment tribunals.

They say that there was no consultation by Carillion management over the scale of the crisis, with workers knowing very little about the situation until they were sacked.

The union also said several major Carillion projects such as Royal Liverpool hospital and Smethwick’s Midland Metropolitan hospital, still remain uncompleted.

Unite assistant general secretary Gail Cartmail said: “It is totally apparent that the government has failed to learn any lessons from this debacle.

“The guilty directors and senior managers remain unpunished and are free to pursue new lucrative roles while the innocent workers have a long battle ahead of them in their battle to secure compensation in the courts.

“Flagship hospital projects are years away from being completed, meanwhile patients and staff have been left to struggle on in facilities that are no longer fit for purpose.

“Government ministers have clearly washed their hands of the whole mess and now pretend it is no longer their problem.

“It is quite clear that their needs to be a root-and-branch reform of company law to prevent similar collapses in the future and the creation of effective regulators with real teeth who are able and willing to tackle bandit capitalism.”