MORE jobs are to go at Grangemouth as a knock-on effect of the closure of refinery operations.
A letter was sent to staff at INEOS Olefins and Polymers UK – separate to the PetroIneos closure of the oil refinery – on Thursday afternoon.
Earlier this month, more than 400 Petroineos workers found out they were being made redundant.
Thursday’s letter said: “The result of that will inevitably be a smaller organisation that means we will need less support services”.
The additional redundancies are from the six parts of the business “directly providing utilities or services to the Refinery”.
These include hydrocarbons, utilities, labs, IT, stores and emergency first response.
INEOS Olefins and Polymers UK said the consultation process will get under way and it will try to avoid compulsory redundancies.
The first tranche of job losses of around 24 will come in labs and stores with more to follow.
Unite the union had warned that closing the refinery would just be the start of such announcements.
This follows Keir Starmer’s headline announcement that the UK Government will provide £200 million in funding for the future of Grangemouth.
Responding to the announcement, First Minister John Swinney said he welcomed “this response from the Prime Minister to my call earlier this week for the UK Government to provide its fair share of support for Grangemouth”.
Swinney went on: “It is a step in the right direction and this funding must be made available immediately.”
Detailed plans for possible new jobs at Grangemouth will be published in the Project Willow report next week.
The Prime Minister also told the Scottish Labour conference that the workers at the closing oil refinery made redundant would be given 18 months’ pay and offers to reskill.
