Plea for contract togoto BiFab

Politicians have united to urge the UK Government to help save under-threat jobs at BiFab.

A cross-party delegation of MSPs has written to Business Secretary Greg Clark calling on him to encourage the award of the Kincardine offshore windfarm contract to the Fife farm.

They said the loss of jobs at yards in Fife and Lewis as work on the Beatrice windfarm comes to an end would be a tragedy for local communities.

The firm has told staff of the potential for redundancies and union leaders have warned that 260 jobs could go in Burntisland, Methil and Arnish by the summer.

SNP, Labour, Green, Conservative and Liberal Democrat MSPs from across Scotland signed the letter following a meeting by Mid Scotland and Fife Labour MSP Claire Baker.

The MSPs have told Mr Clark: “This highly skilled group of workers deserve our support and there are concerns that if no statement of intent regarding the awarding of a new contract is given, that these jobs will be lost to other areas or lost from the economy completely.

“This would be a tragedy for local communities and devastating for the local economies of the areas in question.

“We are aware that there are a number of contracts coming up in the near future for fabrication work, with the first expected to be the awarding of the Kincardine offshore windfarm project.

“We would urge in the strongest terms that this contract take into account its wider responsibility to the Scottish economy and believe that BiFab would be best placed to receive the contract.”

Although awarding of the contract will be a commercial decision outside the government’s control, they said the UK Government should do all it can to encourage contracts to come to BiFab.

The battle is on to save jobs at the BiFab yards.