Revealed: Employment rule change could leave Crossrail short  

NCE has learned that a “significant number” of key personnel employed to carry out assurance work will be affected by the changes to the IR35 tax legislation, which come into effect in April.

Those affected are both site and central based assurance engineers working through either Jacobs or Bechtel.

They currently operate as personal services Ltd companies. However, tweaks to the way IR35 works means that this is no longer an option, leading to concerns that Crossrail could be left short of assurance workers.

The IR35 changes have been introduced to shift the responsibility for determining tax status away from contractors themselves and onto businesses engaging contract workers.

It is understood that current contracts with these workers will run out next month, with neither Crossrail nor its contractors willing to offer full-time employment to keep them onboard.

Crossrail has confirmed that it is aware of the situation and added that it is “constantly reviewing resourcing levels”.

There are fears that this could leave Crossrail with a shortage of workers, with concerns already raised by the project’s representative Jacobs and the London Assembly that Crossrail’s workforce is “over-stretched” and “under-resourced”.

Last month, Crossrail chief executive Mark Wild also admitted that there was a “big risk” that engineers working on Crossrail could leave to work on High Speed 2 (HS2) before the London railway project is complete.

A source close to the project said: “Both [Jacobs and Bechtel] have made it clear that if contracts are extended by Crossrail beyond 31 March then the ‘ltd company’ option will cease to exist.

“Permanent employment by either Crossrail, Jacobs or Bechtel isn’t on offer.”

The source added: “There is still a huge amount of assurance left to complete before handover to TFL.

“This has happened on Crossrail previously - a significant number of key personnel left the project which couldn’t have been beneficial to the project programme.”

Crossrail is currently in the process of completing outstanding work at its stations before it moves into trial running of the railway.

Earlier this week, Crossrail announced that construction at Tottenham Court Road is now “sufficiently finished” and the process of handing the station over to TfL can begin.

Farringdon station also achieved this milestone earlier in the year, after a “blockade mentality” was taken to completing outstanding work on the project’s central London stations.

A Crossrail spokesperson said: “Crossrail Ltd will continue to employ people in line with government rules and regulations.

“We are constantly reviewing our resourcing levels and we are always working with our supply chain partners to ensure we have the required resourcing in the right places to complete the project effectively.”

Jacobs and Bechtel declined to comment.

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