By Paul Reoch

“A BLACK day” was how an MP last night described the announcement yesterday that 52 jobs are set to go at a defence systems site in west Fife.

Willie Rennie, MP for Dunfermline and West Fife, was reacting to BAE Systems’ plans to cut 642 UK jobs at various sites across the country because of a downturn in its workload.

Some 337 people work at the company’s Hillend site.

BAE Systems, which claim to be the largest defence company in Scotland, said that consultations on redundancies would take place soon with its employees.

The systems business affected employs 3700 workers at 11 sites across the UK.

Mr Rennie last night told The Courier the job cuts were a further blow to the Fife workforce.

He said, “This is a black day for the workers in Fife, who recently faced a set of job losses last year.

“It’s an indication of the job cuts with the Ministry of Defence (MoD) and a sign that the MoD budget is overstretched. And, as a result, it’s the workers at BAE Systems that suffer.”

Dunfermline and West Fife MSP Jim Tolson said, “This could not have come at a worse time—just before Christmas.

“I hope the company try to provide security for the workforce at Hillend for as long as possible.”

BAE Systems have said that the cuts follow a review of the current and future workload for its Integrated System Technologies (Insyte) group.

Insyte managing director Rory Fisher said, “We have a responsibility to address a reduction in our forecast workload and manage our cost base to remain competitive and meet our customers’ future requirements.

“We will work with our employees and their representatives to explore ways of mitigating these potential job losses and we will ensure employees are fully supported throughout this process.”

Councillor Dave Dempsey, one of the representatives of the Inverkeithing and Dalgety Bay ward, said, “If there are job losses I hope the people find other jobs. This situation is never good—I have experienced it myself.

“If you find something else reasonably quickly it is not so much of a blow. But at the time it’s like having the rug pulled from under you.”

A BAE Systems spokesperson said, “The company will shortly be consulting with the relevant trade unions about the job cuts. They will be implemented through 2010/2011.”

The other sites affected are Portsmouth, Chelmsford, Christchurch, Isle of Wight, Filton, Frimley (Surrey) and south-west London.

Insyte employs 3719 people across 11 UK sites in radar surveillance, command and information systems, mission training and underwater systems for UK and overseas defence and security customers.

It employs around 105,000 people worldwide.