Renfrew plant revival ‘tainted’ by staff row
Union blasts agency hire
Doosan Babcock is reopening its Renfrew assembly line – but has been blasted for bringing in outside workers when jobs are at risk.
Bosses are creating 30 construction jobs after winning the order pipe and steelwork for an energy from waste programme.
But trade union chiefs say they are “undercutting” existing staff at threat of redundancy.
Gary Cook, GMB Scotland organiser, insists there are 66 workers fighting to keep their roles with the firm in Grangemouth who should be given a chance.
He said: “This is a very worrying precedence in Doosan’s business model because they have traditionally only hired agency labour during times of high workload.
“They have never undercut their directly employed labour in this way.
“Doosan are not just legally obliged to mitigate redundancies elsewhere by offering staff affected reasonable redeployment opportunities, but there is also a moral obligation to protect livelihoods too because this approach is bad for jobs and bad for the economy.”
GMB says the agency Matchtex has been drafted in to supply labour for the six-month contract to supply the plant in Teeside.
It says the decision to shun existing employees at risk of redundancy in favour of outside workers has “tainted” the revival of the Renfrew operation.
Chiefs warn employers could be breaching UK redundancy law and say they could take legal action.
Mr Cook added: “GMB has been campaigning to expose the scandal of social dumping on construction contracts relating to the energy from waste sector.
“This is just one more example of our industry-wide agreements being undercut and it’s skilled local labour that pays the price.
“This should be a good news day for Doosan with the creation of badly needed skilled opportunities in Renfrewshire.
“It is an opportunity for their own staff elsewhere in their organisation to sustain their employment status – instead, its been badly tainted.
“Rest assured that GMB will robustly challenge this decision by Doosan.
“We will use every means at our disposal to ensure our under-threat members in Grangemouth are given every opportunity to continue their employment in Renfrew.”
The company revealed 120 jobs could be cut across the country – just months after 300 workers were laid-off in Renfrew.
Bosses told how redundancies would be spread across the company, including sites in Crawley, Tipton, Selby and Gateshead.
Last year, the company shut down the manufacturing side of its business in Renfrew, making 270 people redundant and ending a 125 history at the site.
A Doosan Babcock spokesman said: “As a result of the withdrawal of a supply chain partner from a major contract we have recently secured, we have taken the decision to immediately commission part of our fabrication facilities at our Renfrewshire site for a short period of time to carry out the works.
“We are in the process of recruiting personnel for the works through one of our resource provider partners, and will work with them to seek to offer opportunities to the local workforce with the necessary skills.”
Doosan Babcock employs more than 5,000 people across the UK and specialises in providing engineering, aftermarket and upgrade services to the power generation, oil and gas, petrochemical and process sectors.