Ferguson Marine Cuts 70 Jobs as 4 Promised Ship Orders Stall

3 articles · Updated · bbc.co.uk · Aug 18

70 posts — nearly a quarter of Ferguson Marine’s 283 staff — will go through voluntary redundancy as work winds down on the delayed CalMac ferry Glen Rosa.
The state-owned Port Glasgow yard says the cuts are needed to bridge an order gap while ministers continue due diligence on a promised direct award of four smaller vessels.
£10,000 extra payments on top of statutory redundancy are expected for staff who leave, while the Scottish government says the reduced workforce will not affect Glen Rosa’s completion by year-end.
Unions called the move a betrayal, arguing ministers have failed to deliver replacement work as the main yard sits without a ship under construction for the first time in 12 years.
Even if the four contracts were approved soon, at least a year of design work would be needed before steel could be cut, extending pressure on the Clyde’s last commercial shipyard.