Published: Thursday, 6th November, 2008 10:25am

Rosyth cabling company axe 90 jobs

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Pic by: Dunfermline Press

IT looks like being a grim Christmas for around 90 workers set to lose their jobs at subsea cabling firm Oceaneering Multiplex in Rosyth.

It was confirmed last week that a quarter of the workforce of just under 400 will be cut in another severe blow to the West Fife economy.

The American-owned company"s general manager at Rosyth, Charlie Backhouse, confirmed that up to 25 per cent of the workforce of around 400 could lose their jobs.

The workforce now face a worrying wait to hear if they are one of those chosen for redundancy.

A 30-day consultation period between company and the workforce representatives over the job losses is underway.

Until now Oceaneering was seen as a West Fife success story and only recently had ambitious expansion plans.

Ian Ewing, regional officer for the Unite trade union, said, 'The announcement came as a shock to the workforce.

"The orders had started to dry up and that"s led to the over-capacity.

'However, I believe it"s more a case of orders being put on hold for the moment rather than being cancelled.

"So, fingers crossed, these orders will still go ahead in future.

'It"s probably fair to say that 2009 will not be a good year at Oceaneering for jobs but we still hope it will not be a bad one.

'The figure the company are talking about now is 89 but we hope to bring that down further.

'They are looking for volunteers but it is still a young company and have only been in Rosyth for around 10 years.'

It looks likely that the date for the redundancies being implemented will be at the start of December.

Mr Backhouse said the redundancies were the result of 'over-capacity' in the subsea umbilicals market and the jobs cuts were needed to make the business more efficient.

'Because of the current over-capacity planned expansion has been put on hold,' added Mr Backhouse.

Asked if the company still had a long-term future at Rosyth, Mr Backhouse said, 'Yes, I certainly hope so. That"s what we"re trying to secure with these measures.'

Dunfermline and West Fife MP Willie Rennie said, 'This came as a complete shock as the company had been looking to expand into the former Lexmark site.

'They were looking to increase the standard and quality of work and add jobs.

'With the oil industry booming in recent years, I felt companies like Oceaneering and FMC were shining lights during difficult times.

'For Oceaneering it hasn"t turned out that way for the moment certainly and I feel for the people who"ve just started recently and were looking to have a long-term future there.'

Dunfermline West MSP Jim Tolson said, 'This is another terrible blow for the area and especially at Oceaneering where we understood there was to be expansion and new jobs created.

'Now we have workers waiting to find out if they have lost their jobs just before Christmas.'

The news of the job losses come hard on the heels of 41 redundancies earlier this month at Cemtron in Dalgety Bay and 50 at BAe Systems, Hillend.