Large-scale job cuts have taken hold at the Williamstown naval yard as multinational shipbuilder BAE Systems slashes 80 employees due to a lack of government work.
The redundancy announcement on Tuesday afternoon has added to calls for the Abbott government to provide a “continuous” military shipbuilding program to protect the local industry from collapse.
Shipyard operator BAE Systems said the axe had fallen because no new Australian Navy vessel contracts had been awarded since 2008 and existing work at the yard was drying up rapidly.
Without new orders, the company said, all shipbuilding activity in Victoria will be finished by early 2016.
“We are a project-based business and our employee numbers must match the needs and status of our ongoing and upcoming projects at any given time,” BAE maritime director Bill Salzer said.
“We have been advocating this position for several years in an attempt to avoid the reductions that are now becoming necessary. The company, and our highly capable shipbuilders here in Williamstown, are eagerly awaiting the actions that must be taken.”
BAE Systems has warned that Australian shipbuilding has entered the so-called “valley of death” – a scenario where the gap between large contracts forced the industry’s demise. The company slashed 150 subcontractors earlier this year and is now assessing the viability of the Williamstown shipyard, which could lead to hundreds more job losses.
A spokesman for Defence Minister Kevin Andrews said the former Labor government, which failed to commission a single naval vessel from an Australian shipyard, was to blame for Tuesday’s job losses.
“This government has expressed its intention to transition towards a continous naval shipbuilding program and is expected to make further announcements as part of the defence white paper in August this year,” he said.
Boilermaker Leon White said none of the yard’s 800 workers was safe from the redundancies announced on Tuesday.
“They will affect everyone from pipe-fitters to boilermakers, scaffolders, and riggers,” Mr White said.
“We will all have a month of waiting, wondering if we are going to be one of the lucky ones who survive for now … but then there will be another 100-odd jobs gone in September and another 100-odd in January next year.”
Australian Manufacturing Workers Union assistant secretary Glenn Thomson renewed calls for the federal government to fast-track tenders for 20 new patrol boats, and to consider commissioning the construction of a fourth Air Warfare Destroyer ship.
“There will be substantially more jobs lost before the end of the year,” he said.
“But the government could take action to bridge the gap in work.”
BAE Systems said on Tuesday it had been making productivity improvements since 2010 and was “ready to commit to even high levels of efficiency” if the government rolls out a plan for continuous shipbuilding production.
Victorian Industry Minister Lily D’Ambrosio said the job losses were a sign the Abbott government needed to “hurry up and place an order to protect Victorian jobs”.
“Only by putting Australian defence manufacturing first can the Abbott Government ensure our defence personnel have the equipment they need to safely secure our national interests,” she said.
This story first appeared in The Age
