Workers made redundant after the closure of the Grangemouth refinery will be given priority for new roles created through the Scottish Government’s £25 million Just Transition Fund, First Minister John Swinney announced on Wednesday.
The new Grangemouth Jobs Prioritisation Scheme, developed in partnership with Unite the Union, will make it a condition for any business receiving investment from the Fund to prioritise eligible Grangemouth workers during recruitment. The measure is designed to retain skilled energy workers as Scotland transitions to a low-carbon economy.
Scottish Enterprise, which administers the Fund, is working with both the Scottish and UK governments to attract new investment to the site. The First Minister said the initiative reflects the government’s commitment to ensuring the energy transition does not leave communities behind.
“Supporting the just transition to a low carbon economy is one of our highest priorities for government,” Swinney said. “The Grangemouth Jobs Prioritisation Scheme – developed in partnership with Unite – is a concrete example of this, helping workers secure new opportunities and ensuring their vital experience and knowledge are not lost to Grangemouth and to Scotland.”
Unite’s Scottish Secretary Susan Fitzgerald welcomed the move but said more urgent action was needed to deliver the promised employment. “Unite has fought every day for the replacement of the highly-skilled jobs lost as a result of the refinery closing,” she said. “The pilot scheme will include a job interview guarantee for eligible workers. We understand this is a first across the UK.”
She added that the union expects rapid progress: “It is now time to deliver with urgency the promised new jobs and investment for the workers and people of Grangemouth if we are to achieve any resemblance of a genuine Just Transition.”
The scheme aims to balance Scotland’s energy transition goals with the economic and social needs of local communities, ensuring public investment directly supports displaced workers in one of the country’s most significant industrial regions.
Image tormentor4555, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Oh that promise will pay the bills, what a load of wishy washy weak net zero rubbish, I’m sure they will take heart from such an empty statement by those that let them loose thier jobs in the first place because of net zero and Ed Milibrain the eco zelot.
What does your car run on? Coal I presume.
My car runs on electricity. It’s good for 1 million miles and I charge it up on my driveway for free every night.
In 30 minutes I can get a 400 mile charge. It’s not possible to drive 400 miles in any direction from my house in the UK without falling off the island and landing in the sea and stoping for 30 minutes every 400 miles seems like a good idea.
My car does not to 60 in 3.1 seconds. How fast is yours?
My car doesn’t require me to buy dinosaur juice from the Russians and Arabs at a massive mark up supporting terrorists and the war in Ukraine. Its power comes from solar panels on my roof and some wind turbines so far off the coast I can’t see them.
That might keep your car running but what about the rest of the countries needs when EVERYTHING is supposed to run on electricity?
As for your ‘free’ electricity how long do you think it will be before the govt replace fuel duty with an electric surcharge for people charging at home? After all nothing is free is it?
Jacko, you might not have noticed as your typing in your computer but everything in the country already runs on electricity.
The electricity coming in to my house going to my TV is the same stuff going to my car. The government can’t tax one and noth the other.
I get most of my from the panels on my roof that I bought and paid for.
How do you think Ed Milliband is going to tax them?
EV’s Solar panels and wind turbines are machines like combustion engines and coal furnaces. They are just better machines because they are several hundred years newer people should stop calling them wishy washy or eco nonsense.
Was it wishy washy eco nonsense to change from coal powered traction engines to petrol powered combustion engines?
Just had a quick Google if your solar panels cost the average of £7000 you will take approximately 10yrs before you recuperate that cost so it’s not ‘free’ at all is it?
Even though so called green energy isn’t working. Brilliant.