Kinetics went into administration on Monday. Unite is trying to persuade Liverpool City Council to use its influence to get the company's client, Liverpool Mutual Homes (LMH), to take the workers on directly.
Kinetics subsidiary DC Group was providing housing maintenance services to LMH, one of the biggest social housing groups in the North West, but after well publicised business difficulties, it had seen it agree to transfer its workforce to LMH in July. LMH was setting up its own in-house maintenance operation, called Housing Maintenance Solutions (HMS).
However, Kinetics collapsed before this could be finalised. Unite says the worker transfer deal should go ahead regardless.
Unite national officer Peter Allenson said: “Kinetics has been struggling to provide the service it was contracted to do for Liverpool Mutual Homes, but we thought we had a way forward.
"Sadly, the company was in too poor a state to carry on so now nearly 300 workers face a bleak future.
"We urge the council to do everything it can to help ensure these workers stay in employment by speeding up their transfer to Liverpool Mutual Homes. It would be a ridiculous waste of public money to make people redundant at the cost to the state when for four weeks or so wages they earn could be transferred and the jobs retained and saved.”
Mr Allenson added: “When will councils learn that they cannot outsource services with the belief that their responsibilities end there? It is still the council who will bear the risk for ensuring the service continues and the taxpayers who will pick up the cost when it all goes wrong.”
Kinetics provides a range of maintenance services, from plumbing to redecoration to Liverpool Mutual Homes. It took over from Interserve, which lost the contract because of service difficulties.
According to reports, Kinetics Group has around 30 contracts around the country and is in discussions with clients about transferring these to the new contractors.
The private equity firm Sovereign Capital, which own 80% of Kinetics, injected an extra £2m emergency investment in January 2011 to ease cashflow.
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