The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 6 plus 6 letter word ENGINE DRIVER
I've seen this crossword clue in The Daily Telegraph
E
N
G
I
N
E
D
R
I
V
E
R
More clues leading to the result ENGINE DRIVER
Buddy explains!

The straight part
We know that "Virgin need ‘er to be working" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case virgin need ‘er to be working = engine driver.The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.