Shipbuilders told to come clean about UK workforce for £1.6bn supply vessels

Firms developing three Fleet Solid Support ships for Royal Fleet Auxiliary have been urged to say how many British jobs will be created – and how much work carried out in the UK

The Confederation of Shipbuilding and Engineering Unions has demanded to see plans outlining how UK workers and firms will benefit from the deal. The CSEU’s maritime chairman Matthew Roberts, a GMB union national officer, has written to Harland & Wolff, ship designers BMT and Madrid-based Navantia, S.A., S.M.E calling for answers.

He has asked for copies of the “UK Content Plan for Fleet Solid Support” and “your Social Value and Training Plan”.

In the letter, seen exclusively by the Mirror, he says: “As you will appreciate, our members have been told that these documents set out the Team Resolute commitments to investment in the UK workforce and domestic supply chains, and – on that basis – sight of the plans is essential if confidence is to be built in the project across the wider workforce.

“We believe it is crucial that these plans are visible, understood and trusted by all stakeholders, including the workforce we represent. Engagement with the workforce and representatives will be vital to delivering a successful programme.”

The trio of 709ft, 40,000-tonne Royal Fleet Auxiliary vessels will resupply Royal Navy aircraft carriers, frigates and destroyers with food, ammunition and explosives. When it announced the contract in November 2022, the Government claimed 1,200 jobs will be created in the UK. But at least 40% of the value of the work – worth about £640million – will go overseas, with some of the building taking place in Cadiz.

Hundreds of jobs in Spain are expected to be created or safeguarded – posts which unions believe could have come to Britain if a rival bid from Team UK, including BAE Systems and Babcock International Group, had won.

Mr Roberts told the Mirror: “Team Resolute must now publish their UK Content Plan and Social Value and Training Plan so they can be held to account on them. Firstly, UK workers need to see that the level of UK work on FSS is significant, as we have always been promised it would be when we learnt the work would not exclusively be within the UK. Secondly, we need to ensure there is no backsliding of work from the UK to foreign yards; work that is allocated and promised to UK yards such as Belfast and Appledore must be completed in these yards.

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