Almost 1,400 jobs in peril as Bifab hopes to find solution amid fears over going bust

0 Unions have urged action to protect the almost 1,400 workers at Bifab as a leading manufacturer of structures for the oil and gas and offshore wind industries.

It operates three facilities – Burntisland and Methil in Fife and Arnish on the Isle of Lewis.

Bifab said it was working on two significant contracts in respect of the under-construction Beatrice offshore wind farm in the outer Moray Firth. One contract is nearing completion while the other is expected to run to the end of April next year.

Company directors stressed they are seeking an immediate financial solution and said they were encouraged by the rapid communication between interested parties in recent days.

Talks on the company’s future are believed to have been held over the weekend, with further emergency meetings taking place yesterday. The GMB union has 440 members across Bifab’s three yards.

GMB Scotland secretary Gary Smith said that hundreds of workers – and many hundreds more in the supply chain – are worried about the future.

“We need to understand why, what’s happened, who knew what, when,” he said.

“I’m very clear closure of those yards and the sacking of those workers is not an option.”

Mr Smithsaid: “Every political interest in Scotland has told us that renewables are the jobs of the future. If they do not do something to secure the future of these yards, it will be a hammer blow to their credibility.”

Pat Rafferty, leader of the Unite union in Scotland, said: “Let’s not mince words here, the Scottish Government cannot stand by and watch Bifab being turned into an industrial graveyard.

“Make no mistake, Unite and its sister unions will not let that happen.”

Paul Wheelhouse, Holyrood’s energy minister, said ministers were looking at all options to help support the management team at Bifab. “I want to reassure you of that point, that we will leave no stone unturned,” he said.