Harland & Wolff have today confirmed media reports circulating over the weekend that jobs are to go at the east Belfast shipbuilder.

The company announced that 265 redundancies will be made. It also confirmed it has entered a 90-day consultation period with unions. The redundancy programme covers 197 operators and 68 staff, and the workforce reductions are expected to be completed by mid-January 2003. The company hopes to attain most of proposed cuts through voluntary redundancy packages.

In its announcement, the company said that "against the backdrop of prevailing market conditions" the job losses form part of a re-structuring plan to consolidate future operations into a "single technically-led, project management organisation".

After the delivery of the RoRo vessel Hartland Point and the commissioning and sea trials of the second RoRo vessel, Anvil Point – due for delivery in early 2003 – the order book at Harland & Wolff is empty. However, a degree of workload has been secured in the ship repair sector. Discussions are also said to be "ongoing" in relation to potential renewable energy, structural steelwork and further technical services opportunities.

Harland & Wolff explained that whilst the company is pursuing "future business opportunities on a number of fronts" in line with its business plan, it has been "unable to secure sufficient firm workload to maintain current employment levels".

Trade Minister Sir Reg Empey described the news as "extremely disappointing". He said that the government had put "much effort" into trying to save jobs at the yard, but "adverse market conditions have not helped".

The minister also pointed out that the company’s business plan "did not involve the injection of any additional public monies".

“The struggle for survival continues," said Sir Reg. "However, the future of Harland & Wolff depends entirely on its ability to secure new work. The company reports that the potential remains for winning new work and I have been assured that determined efforts are being made to secure it.”

The Minister also said that the company is in the process of implementing the re-structuring plan, though "many difficult challenges lie ahead".

“My concern is for the employees who will find themselves out of a job. My department, Invest NI, and the Department of Employment and Learning will make every effort to help these people find new work or training," he added.

Sir Reg said that the multi-million pound re-development of the Titanic Quarter could see some comfort for the area as it may lead to the creation of up to 20,000 jobs over a 10 to 15 year period.

(GMcG)