Vector silent over further job losses

Oct 15 2010 by Greg Christison, Perthshire Advertiser Friday

BOSSES at a leading Perth employer remained tight-lipped yesterday over a claim that up to 100 jobs could be at stake – only days after 30 redundancies were announced.

Aircraft maintenance specialists Vector Aerospace revealed on Tuesday that a tenth of all jobs at the Almondbank plant – including both management and administration posts – would be axed under a new cost-cutting restructuring programme.

However, a source close to the business, who asked not to be named, told the PA yesterday that the latest revelation is “only the tip of the iceberg”.

He claimed that mass losses are in the pipeline because two helicopter models serviced at the plant face are being made surplus to requirements next week, following a government review of resources.

“A lot more jobs are anticipated to go because hardly any new contracts are coming in,” said the source.

“It will get worse as the Lynx and Sea King models will be canned in the Strategic Defence Review next week because the MOD can’t afford to keep them.

“All you need to do is put two and two together and unless they win new work very quickly, it doesn’t look good.”

Morale is understood to be low at the plant, and the man accused the company of holding back information.

“Vector are obviously not telling the full story because they want to change people’s contracts before they make them redundant,” he said.

“As many of them are ex-MOD, they will have very good redundancy packages – it is all about money.”

Vector Aerospace director Ian Burnett replied yesterday: “I cannot comment on speculation. The fact is that nobody knows what is in the Strategic Defence Review until the Government announces it.

“Last month we were able to announce the renewal of two important defence contracts which have helped secure the future of our business.

“However like most businesses forced with a challenging outlook, restructuring is vitally important to strengthen our ability to compete in the market place.

“Looking ahead we therefore can see we need to make some structural changes which unfortunately means losing a layer of management.”

Pete Wishart MP and Roseanna Cunningham MSP met with Mr Burnett yesterday to discuss the issue.

Mr Wishart said: “Conditions are far from benign for anyone in the defence industry and Vector are no exception to that with the possible implications of the UK Government’s Strategic Defence Review very much in the forefront of everyone’s mind.

“I very much hope that Almondbank survives the worst of the expected Westminster defence cuts.”

Agreeing, Ms Cunningham added: “There is little doubt that the review will contain proposals that will impact in some way on the work that Vector does.

“There is real concern about the scale of the Strategic Defence Review and its potential impact on Almondbank and we have agreed to meet again shortly after the actual publication to discuss those implications.”