A UNION official has described as “a red herring” claims in the House of Commons that the design of the Royal Navy’s new Type 26 frigates is only 60 per cent complete.
The claim was made at a Defence Committee meeting on Wednesday by Ministry of Defence (MoD) chief executive for equipment Tony Douglas, as he tried to explain the delay in building the warships.
But Duncan McPhee, Unite union convener at BAE Systems’ Scotstoun yard, told The National yesterday: “Tony Douglas was talking about combat and communications systems, but they go in at the end of the build anyway. What they were talking about, delaying it until late 2017, is for financial reasons.
“The delay is a financial one and we want to get the start date for the construction and manufacturing phase of the contract brought forward to a more realistic date. The [Type 26] ship itself has been designed, so as far as starting construction is concerned there should be no delay.
“The 60 per cent is a bit of a red herring. Certainly that’s not the reason for the delay. The company and the workforce are ready to start those ships at any time.”
McPhee said the workforce of more than 2,300 was geared up for the Type 26 programme but was currently working on offshore patrol vessels, and the mood in the Clyde yards was one of discontent that the contract – which has already been delayed twice – was not moving along.
“The issue isn’t whether or not the ships are being built it’s when the work will start, and that’s frustrating the workforce. Once we get started that gives us continuity in Glasgow. The MoD really need to get their act together and get these contracts started.”
He added that the delay would mean staff who had moved to Rosyth to fit out the two Queen Elizabeth Class aircraft carriers – also for the MoD – would have to stay there longer.
McPhee said the unions would not accept any redundancies as a result of the delay, because they had already been through a programme of lay-offs and restructuring.
“We have the workforce for the Type 26 programme, and there’s an agreement between the company and the MoD that the company has to retain the capability to manufacture complex naval ships – and we are at that figure at the moment,” he said, adding it was up to BAE to hold the MoD to that position.
“Reducing the workforce would be a ludicrous situation because we’d have to re-employ people who’d been paid off when the programme started. It would be a false economy.”
A spokesperson for BAE Systems said: “We have an agreed design with the Ministry of Defence for the Type 26 ships, with a high level of design maturity, and we have met all design maturity milestones to date.
"We are confident that we will be ready to move into the manufacturing phase with a high level of design maturity in line with the production schedule to be agreed with the Ministry of Defence.”
Meanwhile, Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale has written to Defence Secretary Michael Fallon seeking a guarantee that all eight frigates will be built on the Clyde and calling for an “honest explanation” for the delay.
She said: “The UK Government made a solemn commitment to workers on the Clyde that the Type 26 frigates would be built according to a set timeframe, and the shipyards made plans in accordance with that commitment.
“Failure to honour that commitment would represent a breach of trust that would critically undermine the credibility of the UK Government and the new Prime Minister in the eyes of the people of Scotland.”
