Displaying items by tag: Shipyard Closure
BAE Systems to Cut 1,775 Jobs at UK Shipyards
#UKyardClosure - Shipyard workers at BAE Systems, numbering 1,775 jobs are to lose their jobs in Scotland and England and end shipbuilding altogether at Portsmouth, writes BBC News.
The firm said 940 staff posts and 170 agency workers will go at the Portsmouth site, which will retain repairs and maintenance work.
Some 835 jobs will be lost at yards in Govan and Scotstoun, on the River Clyde in Glasgow, and Rosyth in Fife and at the firm's Filton office, near Bristol.
The cuts follow a drop in work after the end of aircraft carriers work.
BAE Systems employs a total of 4,400 people in shipbuilding in the UK, 1,200 in Portsmouth and 3,200 across Govan, Scotstoun, Rosyth and Filton.
The company said it had made the cuts because of a "significant" drop in demand.
The defence contractor and the Ministry of Defence (MoD) have together announced measures which they hope will offset the effect of the job cuts.
Among the plans are more than £100m of investment to expand the dockyard at Portsmouth.
Three new ocean-going Offshore Patrol Vessels for the Royal Navy will also be built at BAE's Govan and Scotstoun yards in Glasgow.
This could help sustain shipbuilding at the yards until work is due to begin on the Type 26 Global Combat ships.
BAE, which heads a consortium that includes Babcock and Thales UK, said it had agreed changes to the Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carrier contract it signed with the MoD in 2009.
This would see the consortium's fee move to a 50-50 risk share arrangement which would provide greater cost performance incentives.
A statement released by BAE Systems said: "Under these proposals, shipbuilding operations at Portsmouth will cease in the second half of 2014.
For much more details on this major historic development in the British shipbuilding sector, BBC News Glasgow and West Scotland reports.
