MoD delay to carrier work puts jobs at risk

Published on Saturday 6 December 2008 18:41

THE Ministry of Defence yesterday admitted that work on two aircraft carriers is to be delayed, amid fears for thousands of jobs at Scotland's shipyards.

The MoD said there would be a "slower timetable" put in place for the construction of the 4bn Royal Navy vessels, which were originally supposed to enter service in 2014 and 2016.

The livelihoods of around 4,600 workers at Govan in Glasgow and Rosyth in Fife depend on the MoD contracts, which could be delayed by up to two years.

The delay has been caused by an MoD cost-cutting exercise, which has been introduced to pay for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and to help the organisation deal with the financial crisis.

Jim Moohan of the GMB Union said a delay would be "exceptionally bad news for the Clyde and the other yards involved in this venture". He added: "It took us a long time to get continuity of work in the yards, but this could take us back to the cliff edge. It is important that the carrier programme comes in on schedule to give us a flow of work for the next 10 or 15 years."

An MoD spokesman said the Government remained fully committed to the carrier programme adding: "We will certainly not be stopping, but things might progress at a slower rate."

But Bernie Hamilton, the national officer for Unite, argued that the delay could safeguard jobs.

Hamilton said: "If they spread the work over a longer period, say 12 months or two years, that would not cause us any problems. The UK does not have the peak capacity in the UK to build these things and meet the build strategy for these boats. This would take the pressure off the workforce and keep them in jobs for another 12 months or two years."

A MoD spokesman said: "We have been examining our planning assumptions for equipment over the next 10 years. The focus is on bearing down on cost increases, and shifting the overall balance of equipment investment to supporting operations. We hope to complete the equipment examination in the next few weeks."

Meanwhile, representatives from the motor industry have held talks with the Government over concerns about liquidity in the market.

A number of motoring companies attended talks with Government officials' representatives to discuss the effects of the global credit crunch on the industry.