Clyde yards axe jobs

Over 60 skilled staff at the Scotstoun and Govan yards could be axed before Christmas following a purge affecting engineering draughtsmen, combat systems engineers and programme planners. The move was condemned by union leaders and politicians and has sparked real fears of a skills shortage when building work eventually begins on the two large aircraft carriers for the Royal Navy.

BAE Systems Naval Ships, which operate both Clyde yards, ended months of speculation by confirming that 63 workers were to be made redundant and the announcement triggered the start of a 30-day consultation period with the unions. The company refused to give a guarantee that the cuts would safeguard the remaining 440 staff in its design team although a senior official insisted: “We have no further plans for job losses.”

Jim Moohan, chairman of the Confederation of Shipbuilding and Engineering Unions, called on the MoD and Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon to agree a strategy which guaranteed long-term employment prospects for shipbuilding workers. Moohan and John Wall of Amicus have repeatedly voiced their fears that once skilled staff in shipbuilding are forced out of the industry they are unlikely to return.

Wall said shipbuilding continued to struggle to retain highly skilled staff because of gaps in orders and said what was happening on the Clyde “encapsulated all that is a real concern”. Clyde shipbuilding BAE boss Vic Emery echoed their concerns.

He said: “The UK can ill-afford to lose such skilled engineering expertise, but our business is unable to sustain the current workforce in these areas until future programmes ramp up.

Defence chiefs have put back the assessment of the aircraft carrier programme by a year and that has affected the starting date of a programme which was to result in most of the work being carried out on the Clyde. Costing at least £3billion, the carriers are due to come into service in 2012 and 2015.