Shipyard closed in virus row over migrant workers
Safety fears after group ‘fails to social distance’
A SHIPYARD owned by the Scottish Government has been closed after migrant workers were flown in to the site during lockdown.
Work on the nationalised Ferguson Marine site has been suspended for a week amid claims more than a dozen eastern Europeans showed up at the site over the weekend and failed to stick to distancing rules.
Trade union leaders said ministers and site managers have questions to answer about the ‘farcical and negligent’ failure to follow the Scottish Government’s own rules.
The 13 workers were pictured arriving at the Port Glasgow yard to begin work on Saturday without keeping two metres apart.
It is understood some of them arrived straight from Edinburgh Airport, while others came from other parts of Scotland and the UK.
This is despite Nicola Sturgeon telling peo- ple to avoid all travel abroad.
Scottish Government laws make it illegal to travel between Scottish council areas or into Scotland from other parts of the UK for non-essential reasons.
Miss Sturgeon has also asked firms not to force staff to travel to work if they can avoid it.
All of the workers have now been told they must self-isolate for ten days and all work at the site has been suspended to allow a full review of coronavirus measures at the yard.
Concerns have been raised that the safety of other members of staff has been put at risk.
The y ard is within t he Inverclyde council area, which is now Scotland’s top Covid hotspot, having recorded 438 cases per 100,000 people in the most recent seven-day period.
GMB Scotland organiser Gary Cook said: ‘Saturday’s events were farcical and negligent. It compromises worker and community safety, calls into question the management’s competency, and leaves the Scottish Government’s “fair work” agenda in tatters.
‘Suspension of production at the yard is the right thing to do but this is a mess of management’s own making. Both the Minister (Economy Secretary Fiona Hyslop) and the managing director have serious and urgent questions to answer, from adhering to the Scottish Government’s own Covid safety guidance to the sourcing of labour in a publicly owned yard.’ Local sources began raising concerns on Saturday after pictures emerged online of the workers queuing up at the yard. Chris McEleny, leader of the SNP group on Inverclyde Council, yesterday said he will be asking the local to launch an investigation into Covid measures on the site.
He said: ‘The yard should be closed as it’s a lockdown. People from Scotland travel abroad for work but they don’t get work by stateowned shipyards paying off local workers to bring in workers.
‘With Inverclyde having such high rates of Covid now and many people dying again people are right to have concerns about workers coming to the area from abroad.’
When the Mail initially raised the concerns with management at Ferguson Marine, they said they had complied with guidance and worked with unions to make sure ‘robust’ measures are in place.
They said the workers, who are all eastern European but are said to have settled status in the UK, were recruited by a pipe-fitting subcontractor, HB Hydraulics.
A spokesman f or Ferguson Marine said: ‘We are disappointed at HB Hydraulics’ failure in this matter. We have insisted the workers self-isolate and they will not start work until we are satisfied all individuals are Covid-free.’
However, within hours of the Mail contacting the Scottish Government about the issue, Ferguson confirmed work at the yard was being suspended for one week.
The firm’s Tim Hair said it will ‘identify whether there are additional ways to protect workers’.
A Scottish Government spokesman said: ‘We expect all businesses and individuals to fully comply with the public health guidelines.’
‘Farcical and negligent’ ‘Serious questions to answer’