By Lars Niven

JUST WEEKS after winning the £20 million contract to refit HMS Ark Royal, bosses at Rosyth Dockyard in Fife have confirmed that 320 more jobs are to be lost.

Babcock, the private company that owns the dockyard, said there just wasn’t enough work available and it had to slash its workforce to just 1200 to remain competitive.

Fears are growing that the company will struggle to retain enough skilled people to carry out work on the super-carriers contract, which is expected to begin in 2007.

If it can’t, the prospects for its long-term survival are thought to be bleak.

One MSP described the dockyard’s situation as “precarious” and said it was “touch and go” as to whether Babcock could retain the core skills it needed.

The problem lies in the company’s order book.

There just isn’t enough work to bridge the gap between now and the super-carrier work coming on stream—if it comes to Rosyth at all.

The contract to refit the Royal Navy’s flagship will go some way to bridging the gap, but not far enough.

HMS Ark Royal isn’t due to arrive in the Forth until January.

Confirming the job losses, a spokesman for Babcock said, “Following a detailed review of the naval ship upkeep programme planned over the next few years, it has become clear that it will be necessary to reduce the size of the labour force at our Rosyth naval dockyard facility to 1200, a reduction of 320.

“This action is required to ensure that we retain our position as the UK’s most competitive and cost-effective warship upkeep facility.

“The level of naval work has steadily declined in recent years and, although we have been successful in winning seven out of the 11 contracts competed in the last 12 months (most recently HMS Ark Royal and HMS Scott), the volume of work available cannot sustain the workforce at its current level.

“The job losses will occur between June and the end of 2005.

“We shall endeavour to achieve the required reductions on a voluntary basis.”

One source told The Courier yesterday, “The trade unions work closely with management at the dockyard.

“They were told jobs would probably have to go, but this is at the upper end of the scale.

“Nobody thought it would be quite as bad as this.”

Scott Barrie, the Labour MSP for Dunfermline West, said the news was extremely worrying.

“It just shows the difficulties that the gap in the dockyard’s order book is causing for Babcock,” he said.

“It also shows how important last month’s announcement that Rosyth is to refit the HMS Ark Royal was and how necessary that work is.

“Even with that work there is still not enough to fill the gap in the order book.

“Without it the jobs losses would have been an awful lot worse.

“It just shows what a precarious state the dockyard is in.”

Helen Eadie, his counterpart in Dunfermline East, said, “Obviously I am concerned about the job losses.

“I spoke to the Chancellor (Dunfermline East MP Gordon Brown) on Friday night about them and Lewis Moonie (the MP for Kirkcaldy), who is the person closest to the issues having been involved with the MoD.

“I think that the aircraft carrier work needs to be timetabled to come in sooner than it is.

“That’s what everyone is relying upon to get us through the next 10 year period.”

Bruce Crawford, SNP MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, couldn’t understand the logic behind shedding so many jobs.

“It seems incredibly short-sighted,” he said.

“If Rosyth is to properly carry out the work on the carriers from 2007 onwards, it needs a fully trained and skilled workforce.

“I have real concerns that if the company are shedding labour at the moment then when it comes to 2007 the workforce won’t be available to carry out the carrier work.

“I would hope the Ministry and Defence and Babcock will be discussing that very issue in the coming weeks.”