Clyde job losses will be staggered over three years

As reported in later editions of yesterday's Evening Times, defence company BAE Systems confirmed about 800 jobs would be cut at the city's yards in Govan and Scotstoun, and Rosyth, Fife. Most of the jobs will be lost in Glasgow.

In England, an entire yard will be axed in Portsmouth, with 940 staff there losing their posts. Another 35 or so will go at the firm's Filton office, near Bristol, bringing the total jobs lost to 1775.

But the company said its Scottish cutbacks - inevitable after the two Glasgow yards wind down their work on the UK two new giant aircraft carriers - will be phased over nearly three years.

Charlie Blakemore, BAE's director of business and transformation, believes the gradual process should soften the blow to the workforce because it will provide the chance for many workers to find alternatives inside and outside the business.

Mr Blakemore said: "The potential job losses fall from next year through to the end of 2016.

"That gives us the opportunity to work really hard together to negate any compulsory job losses. There could be quite a number of volunteers.

"We are looking at redeployment and retraining and giving employees help to find work outside our business.

"We can't guarantee anything. But, as the carriers' work gradually, reduces one of the benefits will be we can work with employees to avoid compulsory redundancies whenever possible."

Lay-offs were always expected after the carriers were finished. The contract is huge, with the 65,000-tonne ships, HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince Of Wales, the biggest ever built on the Clyde.

Much work is being carried out at both Govan and Scotstoun. BAE Systems workers are also at Rosyth, where a dockyard run by Babcock is being used to assemble the monster ships.

The jobs that will be axed do not include contractors and short-term workers hired by other firms to do carrier work. "This (redundancies) is about our core workforce," Mr Blakemore said.

It is expected that a new UK Government order for Type 26 frigates - each costing between £250million to £350m - will go to the Glasgow yards. If that happens, it will effectively mean the yards have defence work for decades because, no matter what happens in next year's independence referendum, England will not have a strategic naval shipbuilding yard.

The shipbuilding part of the Portsmouth yard has operated for only about a decade and lacks the kind of infrastructure and know-how found at the Glasgow yards.

Portsmouth was always expected to be the most likely victim of cuts - although another plan that would have seen Govan shut and only Scotstoun saved was considered in recent weeks.

There has been a huge backlash in England over the decision to save the Glasgow yards, with accusations that the UK Government and BAE Systems were "kowtowing to separatist Jocks". However, Mr Blakemore insisted the decision to save the yards in Scotland was not political.

He said: "The announcement was based purely on industrial grounds, on the skills and capabilities of our workforce and the infrastructure. There was no political dimension to our decision."

The Clyde has always been in poll position to build the Royal Navy's next generation of Type 26 frigates or Global Combat Ships, which are being designed in Glasgow and Filton.

However, this work was not expected to start immediately after the carrier contract ends. That could have meant the yards would have been idle, with the Government having had to pay the bill for keeping the yards ticking over.

But Defence Secretary Philip Hammond yesterday announced three offshore patrol vessels - known as OPVs - would be built on the Clyde.

He said: "This deal will provide the Royal Navy with three new maritime patrol vessels with a wide range of capabilities that will support our national interests and those of our overseas territories.

"This is an investment not only in three ships but in this country's warship building industry. It prevents workers standing idle and sustains the vital skills needed to build the planned Type 26 frigate in the future."

The Evening Times understands hulls for the Type 26s will be built at Govan before the ships are fitted out at Scotstoun.

The Royal Navy would like 13 of the vessels, but it is not yet clear the Ministry Of Defence budget can afford so many because it would cost more than £3.3billion.

Mr Blakemore was upbeat. "This latest announcement gives us a strong future, with Type 26s - up to 13 of them - potentially providing work up to 2034.

"We now have an excellent springboard, a platform, to develop and build world-class complex ships."

Industry and other sources had expected Govan to close, leaving all BAE work to be done at Scotstoun. However, the South Side yard appears ideal to make the offshore patrol vessels.

Mr Blakemore said the yard had been saved by its "infrastructure capacity".

Other sources, including those angry about the English yard closing, believe Govan's iconic status helped it to survive.

The Evening Times reported last week that BAE Systems was to remove cranes at the Govan yard and Mr Blakemore today said the work to dismantle them would continue. This is despite a suggestion the decision would be reversed - to preserve the heritage.

He said: "We are proud of our heritage, built on the back of our highly-skilled workforce that has gone through many ups and downs.

"We understand the cranes are symbolic in Govan. But over the last few months we have been taking down plant and equipment from both yards - we have recently done big demolitions at Scotstoun too.

"The cranes are in a state of disrepair and are no longer fit for purpose. We have undertaken to dismantle them as part of the overall modernisation of our shipyard.

"We want to embrace our history and our heritage. But we have to shape our yards so we can create a new heritage.

Yards will now building frigates and OPVs

THEY have a word for the warships built on the Clyde: complex.

Government officials and BAE Systems engineers always repeat it.

The last "D" class of destroyers, with their sleek stealth design, and sophisticated weapons, were complex.

So are the aircraft carriers still in being constructed.

So, too, are the coming generation of Type 26 frigates, or Global Combat Ships as they are called.

Glasgow will make the frigates - which will be the workhorses of the Royal Navy - for a decade or more starting in or about 2017. The Navy wants 13 of them, but this has still to be confirmed.

But, first, the Govan and Scotstoun yards will make simpler ships, three offshore patrol vessels, known as OPVs. Work on them will begin next year, with the first delivered in 2017.

That order will fill the gap between the carriers and Type 26s.

OPVs, nimble craft and frigates are also exactly the vessels a Scottish navy would need if the country votes for independence and it takes a role patrolling the North Atlantic for Nato and protecting Scotland's coast.