Workers ‘gutted’ as jobs are axed at steel works

Eighteen posts to go across Lanarkshire plants

EDEL KENEALY

Eighteen workers at the Lanarkshire steelworks have been axed – just weeks after owners of the firm reaffirmed their commitment to the two sites.

Liberty Steel, which employs a pool of 163 staff who work across the Dalzell Clydebridge plants, confirmed the redundancies this week.

One of the axed workers, who asked not to be named, contacted the paper after being let go.

He said: “Eighteen of us were told we were going.

“I had just come onto a back shift when I was told.

“They told us that it was because of Brexit, but only 10 per cent of our output goes to Europe.

“Liberty had told us in May that there would be redundancies, but they didn’t give us a breakdown of where they would be. I had worked there for seven years when Tata had it. I got another job for 10 months before I came back so I’m totally gutted.”

Liberty re-opened Dalzell steelworks in September 2016 after it and the Cambuslang-based Clydebridge were mothballed by previous owners Tata.

The company promised its Greensteel vision, which sees renewable energy power rolling mills, would ensure a sustainable future for the plants.

However, three years later, the Clydebridge plant is only used periodically – when specific orders have required use of the technology there – and staff from the Dalzell site have been transferred to Cambuslang to do this work. A spokesman for Liberty Steel insisted that there was proper consultation with the axed workers and that the plant is in better shape than it has been for “a long time”.

He added: “Over the past 18 months we have made great progress in reducing costs, improving efficiency, building order books and greatly improving the financial health of Dalzell.

“However, over recent months there has been a very significant drop in the market, which is affecting all UK steel companies.

“This is due to uncertainty among customers, caused by external factors beyond our control and it is undermining our ability to increase sales as planned. As a result, we are, regrettably, forced to reduce numbers employed at the plant by 18 in order to sustain the business going forward and protect what we have achieved for the benefit of the remaining 145 employees.

“We have discussed this indepth with the workforce and their trade union representatives and are making selections on an open and fair basis, using voluntary redundancy or non-renewal of temporary contracts, where possible.

“Despite this measure, we are confident that, when current market uncertainties are lifted, we will be able to secure substantial new orders.”

LibertytoldusinMaythattherewouldberedundancies,buttheydidn’tgiveusabreakdownofwhere