Engineering news
Doosan Babcock, which provides engineering services to the energy, pharmaceutical and petrochemical industries, is to cut 470 roles across the UK as it foresees a "long-term downturn in certain market sectors".
The company confirmed that 270 jobs are at risk at its base in Renfrewshire, where 800 staff are currently employed, including 140 posts at its machining and assembly facility in Renfrew, along with 130 management and back-office support roles.
In addition, 70 roles are at under threat in Crawley, West Sussex, another 20 at Gateshead and a further 25 at Tipton in the West Midlands. The rest will be spread across other sites in the UK.
Chief executive Andrew Hunt said: "Over the last year we have worked hard to rebalance the business, adapting to changing market dynamics and reacting to industry requirements for a low-carbon future.
"Unfortunately, we foresee long-term downturn in certain market sectors which mean the current position is unsustainable. It is with much regret that we now have to enter into the statutory consultation period on redundancies."
He added: "The continued long-term growth of the business across the UK and in strategic international markets remains a priority.
"We have made significant progress in transforming and future-proofing the business but this will only prove successful if we also reduce our cost base in parallel."
In response to the proposed cuts, Phil Whitehurst, national officer at the GMB union, said: “What is so tragic about these job cuts is that Doosan Babcock have the capacity and specialist technology needed to forge a path in the heavily in demand energy from waste and biomass power business in the UK. But the fact their investment team didn’t have the confidence to do so is down to a shocking disparity in the tendering process between UK and non-UK companies in the new build energy construction sector.
“It’s a sad indictment that none UK companies are dominating the market, manufacturing key project components in smaller economies in Eastern Europe and then utilising and exploiting posted workers to construct them in the UK. This in turn has resulted in an aggressive form of social dumping of the UK labour pool all in the name of huge profits."
Whitehurst added: “This incompetent government, and the ones before it, have done nothing to put UK businesses on a level playing field by mandating that all energy and infrastructure projects are built utilising UK Collective Agreements such as the National Agreement for the Engineering Construction Industry. Only when this is done will companies like Doosan Babcock be able to compete in the UK on a level playing field. Until then, we will see more devastating job losses like these.”