‘Work-in’ to keep closure-threatened offshore engineering business open

AROUND 1,400 workers at a closure-threatened offshore engineering firm are working unpaid to ensure a major contract is completed and the yard stays open.

Trade union Unite praised the move at marine engineering business Burntisland Fabrication, or BiFab, in the town and Methil in Fife, and Arnish on the Isle of Lewis, as a “courageous stand”.

Staff are manning the gates to ensure materials are not taken away from the yard, potentially disrupting the £100 million deal to build 26 offshore wind turbine jackets for Netherlands-based Seaway Heavy Lifting on an offshore windfarm in the outer Moray Firth.

The GMB’s Alan Ritchie added: “The workers have decided to continue a work-in.

“They will be maintaining the gates to make sure

A worker at Burntisland Fabrications’ yard in Methil.

the contract, which is 77 per cent complete, will not be taken out of any of these yards.

“The gates will be maintained by the shop stewards and nothing will come in and nothing will go out without their permission.”

Unite’s Bob McGregor added: “The mood is uncertainty.”

The union’s Scottish secretary Pat Rafferty accused Seaway of holding BiFab “to ransom”, adding: “It beggars belief that 1,400 jobs are now in jeopardy over who owes how many millions of pounds to whom.” He appealed to the Scottish Government for support. POLICE Scotland has been rapped in a watchdog probe following complaints over its “interference” in a Scottish Palestinian Solidarity Campaign.

The force’s explanations were described as “not consistent” and “not adequately reasoned”.

The Police Investigations and Review Commissioner (Pirc) found that a uniformed sergeant’s unannounced visit to a meeting to give advice to activists in a cinema turned out to be an information-gathering exercise, which was recorded on force systems along with an individual’s personal details.

In a separate visit to one SPSC member’s house by a police sergeant and inspector, a warning was given that he should not to take part in a planned supermarket protest. The watchdog