A task force to help 1,000 staff being made redundant at Clydeside
shipbuilder BAE Systems Marine is to try to find them jobs in the defence
sector.
The group, comprising members of the Scottish Executive, the Scottish
Office, BAE Systems, the STUC and local trade union members, is to assess the
transferable skills of the employers who are to be axed.
BAE’s HR director, Susan Binnersley, who is playing a key role in the task
force, said "We are doing a skills and capabilities analysis to assess
where retraining opportunities exist and broadening the perspective from not
just being about shipbuilding but looking at opportunities in the defence sector
as a whole."
The redundancies will be phased in from October to Christmas. The taskforce
hopes to produce an interim study before this process starts, with a final
report to be completed by December.
Binnersley added, "Shipbuilding is too small an activity to talk about
it separately from its part within defence in BAE Systems. I understand the
feelings about the culture but if we are talking about long-term security we
need to broaden our outlook."
Task force members have already met their counterparts from Motorola which
has redeployed many of its staff.
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About one third of the 3,100 Motorola employees who are losing their jobs at
the Bathgate plant in Scotland have already been found jobs thanks to the task
force.
By Colin Wright
