BiFab fiasco (cont.) – you’ll cover wages
TAXPAYERS will pay the fees of an administrator and all staff salaries at a crisis-hit engineering firm, ministers have announced.
Economy Secretary Fiona Hyslop yesterday revealed the Scottish Government will pay for the running costs at Burntisland Fabrications (BiFab), which has formally entered administration.
But she was unable to say how much the move would cost or how long the workers would be paid for.
She said: ‘I have agreed that the Scottish Government will fund the administrators’ initial work, which includes paying the workforce while a sale of business process is pursued, should there be insufficient funds in the business to do so. That will avoid any immediate redundancies... welcome news for the workforce.’
Deloitte was confirmed as administrator at BiFab, which has yards in Burntisland and Methil, in Fife, and one on Lewis.
The company was rescued by the Scottish Government in 2017 and bought by DF Barnes in 2018, but with the Government as the ‘primary financiers’.
It is estimated that there are around 500 staff working for the firm.
Pressed by Labour and the Conservatives for details of the cost of the move, Miss Hyslop said only that it would ‘depend on how much the existing resources in the company can be used’ but said the company was in a ‘perilous financial situation’.
The Scottish Government also last night failed to confirm what the weekly cost of paying administrator fees and staff wages would be.
Scottish Conservative infrastructure spokesman Graham Simpson said: ‘As we approach Christmas, the SNP’s Economy Secretary must urgently clarify to workers how long they are prepared to pay their wages through the administrators who are now in charge.
‘The SNP have already ploughed over £50million worth of the public’s money into BiFab, which went down the drain in a rotten deal.
‘The words of the First Minister about saving jobs as she stood at the site now ring hollow. These workers cannot be let down again.
‘It is simply not good enough for the Cabinet Secretary to dodge questions around further costs when workers are desperate for answers on what is happening at these critical sites.’