A north-east MSP has accused the Scottish Government of leaving redundancy-threatened workers at Young’s Seafood out in the cold for Christmas.
The fish processing giant shocked the north-east earlier this when it announced it was closing its Fraserburgh operation, threatening nearly 1,000 with Christmas redundancies.
Prolonged local pressure forced the firm to make a U-turn on the closure, however hundreds of staff will still be made redundant.
But last night Labour MSP Lewis Macdonald revealed that a government taskforce hurriedly set up in the aftermath of Young’s redundancy announcement has not met “for months”.
Mr Macdonald’s comments came after a visit to the Watermill Road plant where he met with senior management and union representatives.
“What I heard from Young’s staff was a huge sense of frustration that neither the Scottish Government nor any of the commercial companies involved seems to be focused on saving jobs and protecting people’s livelihood, with 300 fish processors set to lose their jobs over the next six months,” he said.
“At a time when every effort is rightly being made to save the Scottish steel industry the workers in Fraserburgh wonder why their case has been forgotten.
“While the steel jobs taskforce is meeting every fortnight, the Fraserburgh taskforce hasn’t met for two months and isn’t planning to meet for two months more.”
After the meeting, USDAW union representative Alex Moonan said: “It is time that jobs here in the north-east are taken just as seriously as jobs elsewhere in Scotland.”
But the Scottish Government reacted strongly to Mr Macdonald’s suggestion the administration has forgotten the plight of Young’s staff.
A spokeswoman said last night: “We continue to make every effort to support Young’s staff in their bid to stay in work.
“The Fraserburgh task force is working on an economic recovery plan to secure alternative employment for affected Young’s workers and to create sustainable, long term employment in the area.”
The spokeswoman confirmed that no task force meeting has been tabled before January, but that Business Secretary Fergus Ewing MSP would give a public update before the end of 2015.
Banffshire and Buchan Coast SNP MSP Stewart Stevenson – who has attended the taskforce meetings – added the government remains “absolutely committed” to ensuring the best possible outcome for workers at the site is found.
A spokeswoman for Youngs declined to comment.