Defence giant Babcock lays off 150 people at Scotland shipbuilding yard
Shipbuilder Babcock has announced a further 150 job losses at its shipyard in Rosyth, where work continues on the second of two aircraft carriers for the Royal Navy.
The firm’s shares were down 3.52 per cent on the news, which adds to a miserable last few months for investors in the defence contracting giant.
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A Babcock spokesperson said “we anticipate the loss of around 150 specific roles which are no longer needed,” after an assessment of the firm’s current workload and medium term opportunities.
The latest round of cuts brings the number of people laid off at the site in the last 18 months to 550, as the company approaches the end of its project building the Queen Elizabeth aircraft carrier.
Babcock is the second-biggest supplier to the Ministry of Defence (MoD), and works on a range of major projects critical to national security including major work on the submarines which house the nuclear deterrent, Trident.
“Today’s workforce announcement is a continuation of the need to right size our organisation,” the spokesperson added.
The announcement met firm criticism from GMB union’s national chair of shipbuilding Ross Murdoch, who said workers were “paying the price for the government’s betrayal of UK shipbuilding”.
Murdoch added: “Rather than ensure a steady drumbeat of shipbuilding orders that keep the industry alive, the Conservatives seem content to let UK shipbuilding die out in the name of the free market.
“Appledore is on the brink of closure, Cammell Laird is slashing jobs and now this. When will the Government step in to save our centuries old shipbuilding heritage.”
An MoD spokesperson said: “Although this is a commercial decision for Babcock, we continue to invest in British shipbuilding as demonstrated by our Type 26 and Type 31e programmes.
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“Babcock’s Royal Rosyth yard has played a key role in our Queen Elizabeth Class carrier programme and just last month was awarded a £5m contract to carry out maintenance on HMS Queen Elizabeth later this year.”
Babcock, which holds 128 government contracts including for nuclear and marine defence, has seen shares under pressure since late last year when an anonymous analyst’s note questioned the company’s relationship with the Ministry of Defence.