Ferguson yard boss warns of staff losses amid gap in work

The head of Ferguson Marine has warned MPs that the lack of ferry orders is forcing the Port Glasgow yard to shed workers and risks undermining its future stability.

Giving evidence to the Scottish Affairs Committee on 16 July, Graeme Thomson, who took over as Chief Executive on 1 May, said long-term certainty was essential for the survival and growth of the yard.

“It is important for any yard—but particularly for Ferguson’s—to try to be clear on how we approach our investment and the development of our resources, and how we structure our facility and yard to understand the pipeline. Without that, we do not have a case for the investment, the level of recruitment we would like to do or the apprenticeship, or to look at the long term to be able to say that we will grow and bring social value back into the Clyde area.”

He advised that a predictable flow of work was necessary not only for capital investment but also for training and skills. “We need to see that pipeline to understand what we can then do to make sure that how we operate is efficient, and that we are investing to make ourselves efficient. At the same time, we need to actually understand the resource and the skills that we would look to pull from the local area to train and develop to do that work. Without that pipeline, those decisions are not made and that opportunity is not taken.”

Pressed by the Committee on the current order book, Thomson admitted the position was precarious. “At the moment we have the work to complete Glen Rosa. As mentioned previously, we have the BAE Systems units, which we were delighted to sign last week. Going forward, we have an issue in terms of retention of staff. People literally go where the work needs them to go and they have security of employment. Equally, we need to actually demonstrate delivery to get us to a position where we restore confidence in the market in our capabilities at Ferguson Marine.”

The CEO made clear that a lack of forward work beyond Glen Rosa was already leading to departures. “We really have a problem just now with retention of staff and focus on the job in hand. Where we have had to lose staff—where they have unfortunately chosen to exit—we have a challenge bringing people back in when we have such a short timeline just now without any large vessel work following on from Glen Rosa.”

Asked directly whether staff had been cut, Thomson confirmed the yard had shed workers linked to the steel phase of the Glen Rosa build. “We have had to let some agency contractor staff go as we have moved through the phases of the build of Glen Rosa. We are coming off the end of the main steelwork aspects and moving into the outfitting now, which we have been for a while. We had an agency contractor supporting us on the steelwork side, and as we have come off that piece of work, we have unfortunately had to let some agency contracting staff go.”

The comments underline how Ferguson’s reliance on a narrow pipeline is leaving the yard vulnerable between projects. Thomson stressed that continuity of orders was the only way to retain skilled staff, invest in efficiency, and secure the yard’s future role in Scotland’s shipbuilding sector.