Ferguson Marine has opened a voluntary redundancy programme expected to see up to 70 employees leave the Port Glasgow yard, as work on the ferry Glen Rosa winds down and before contracts for four new vessels are finalised, the company stated.
The yard is moving into the final outfitting and commissioning phases of Glen Rosa ahead of delivery in the fourth quarter of 2026, and says the workload is naturally reducing as a result. Formal consultation has begun.
Graeme Thomson, chief executive of Ferguson Marine, said: “Our immediate focus remains the safe, high-quality handover of Glen Rosa in Q4 2026. However, as the vessel nears completion, we face an inevitable gap in workload while we work with the Scottish Government to make the relevant preparations to enable us to proceed with contract negotiations.
“Shipbuilding capability relies on continuity and while changes of this nature are difficult, taking proactive action now ensures we protect the long-term viability of the yard and remain lean, modern, and ready to cut steel on the new fleet as quickly as possible.”
He said: “We take our responsibility to our workforce and community incredibly seriously. By offering a voluntary redundancy path, we want to support team members who have given so much to shipbuilding on the Clyde as they consider their next steps. At the same time, we are doing everything in our power to ensure the yard is structured to offer secure, long-term careers once the new build programme gets underway.”
The Scottish Government announced in March 2026 that it intended to make a strategic direct award to Ferguson Marine covering four vessels: two ferries for Caledonian Maritime Assets under the Small Vessel Replacement Programme, along with a marine protection vessel and a marine research vessel. Due diligence on that award is still under way.
Ferguson Marine says the changes announced are designed to address the size of the business and align skills across the yard so it is ready to begin work as soon as the contracts are settled, and that the consultation will not affect the remaining work or the delivery schedule for Glen Rosa. A phased transition plan is in place across active projects.
GMB Scotland, the largest union at the yard, called the job losses a betrayal of a blameless workforce and blamed ministers for failing to deliver new contracts while sending work overseas.
Louise Gilmour, GMB Scotland secretary, said 70 jobs are at risk while the Scottish Government refuses to sign off contracts promised before the Holyrood election in May.
She said: “Shipbuilders needs ships to build so where are those promised to Ferguson Marine? If they ever come, who will build them? Fergusons was once Scotland’s ferry factory with a worldwide reputation for excellence and should be again.
“Instead, skilled and experienced shipbuilders are being encouraged to leave as those in charge send contracts everywhere but here. The lack of support, ambition and industrial strategy is abject.”
Ms Gilmour, who noted that a third of CalMac’s current fleet was built at the yard, tied the losses to a long-standing failure to open a pipeline of work after Glen Rosa and Glen Sannox.
She said: “Its reputation has been battered for ten years because of two calamitous contracts decided and driven by those in charge of our ferry network. Their hubris and incompetence have failed a blameless workforce that deserves the chance to turn the page.”
Glen Rosa is the second of two dual-fuel ferries ordered for the Clyde and Hebrides network in 2015, a contract that ran years late and far over budget, and which led to the yard being taken into public ownership in December 2019 after Ferguson Marine Engineering went into administration. Her sister ship Glen Sannox was handed over in early 2025, around seven years behind the original schedule.
The pattern the redundancies illustrate is the one that has dogged smaller British yards for decades. A yard that finishes one order without another already cut in steel loses the people who built the first, and the welders, pipefitters and outfitters who leave rarely come back. Ferguson Marine is arguing that shrinking now protects its ability to staff up when the new programme starts.
The yard also carries out fabrication work for BAE Systems on the Type 26 frigate programme, producing structural units that are shipped up the river to Govan for assembly, and is partway through a transformation project intended to modernise the site.
Ferguson Marine has operated at Port Glasgow since 1903 and is the last commercial shipbuilder on the lower Clyde.
