Firm ready to take on UK welders

UNIONS are calling for engineering construction jobs at power stations in Yorkshire to go to unemployed UK welders. The GMB wants a change of heart over plans by engineering technology firm Doosan Babcock to employ welders from the Philippines to carry out annual maintenance at Drax and Ferrybridge power stations in North Yorkshire.

The union said they were concerned that the company was pressing ahead with plans to fill some vacancies with non-EU labour although the job category is no longer on the official UK skill shortages list. They have written to Work and Pensions Minister Ian Duncan Smith and Immigration Minister Damian Green asking for their support and are meeting the company on Friday to once again insist UK labour is used when the plants shut down next month for “outages”.

The GMB have advised welders who were unemployed and looking for work to apply. They said 500 had done so including from Yorkshire and the Humber. Doosan Babcock insisted there was a shortage of “high integrity” welders and said they were looking for as many as 30 extra short-term staff. They said they welcomed applications for the jobs.

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Meanwhile workers who lost their jobs on a £200m biofuels site in March when Vivergo terminated its contract with Redhall Engineering continued their long-running protest at Saltend in Hull yesterday.