Rocket range jobs fears

Jobs are at risk at the South Uist rocket range.

It is understood 19 islanders face their posts being abolished and replaced with merged roles.

The figure represents about 21% of the nearly 90 people working for QinetiQ in Uist.

A six week consultation has been launched as the company - which operates the missile testing base for the Ministry of Defence - seeks to redesign posts to slash 200 jobs across the UK.

Applications for the merged posts may be open to redundancy-threatened staff from other parts of the contractor’s UK operations.

South Uist councillor Ronnie Mackinnon said he believed 19 people received letters over their jobs.

Mr Mackinnon said the number of posts under threat was a “big blow for Uist.”

He stressed: “This is a shock for the community and really, really, bad news for the island.”

“Even losing one job at a time when work is very scarce here is bad enough.”

He asked: “Why cut jobs here? The rocket range is one of their best sites in the UK.”

Councillor Donnie Steele - who is also the Unite union representative at QinetiQ said. "First and foremost we have to think of all those who have been put 'at risk.'

"There will be confusion, disappointment and anger, and the uncertainty will last for many weeks.

"It's a very worrying time for those affected and their families. As the employee rep, I will advise and give confidential support to the employees."

The Hebrides Range has the largest area for the live firing of rockets and missiles of any UK range, providing a secure environment for test and evaluation, and training for air, sea and ground launched weapons.

The rocket range came under threat by Labour in 2009 - with plans to run it down risking nearly 200 island jobs.

A community campaign resulted in an U-turn by Westminster.

It faced another closure threat under a review by the Lib-Con coalition but won a reprieve until now.

Last year major international war games choose the Hebrides Range in South Uist to test out modern warfare.

It included the United States assessing its technically complex ballistic missiles defence systems.

The American Navy blasted the Terrier Orion missile into space from South Uist, in its first test of its kind outside US soil.

A QinetiQ spokesperson said: “We have completed an outline design for QinetiQ that puts the right people with the right skills in the right place to deliver for our customers.

“It creates a number of new roles but will result in a net reduction of around 200 roles across QinetiQ – approximately 3% of our total workforce of 6,210 – achieved through a number of measures, including attrition and some redundancies.

“We are committed to doing everything we can to protect employment, supporting those affected to redeploy them into new roles where possible.

“Our priority is to discuss the changes with individual employees across our sites. The consultation period will run for six weeks and until this process is complete it is not possible to give details of the numbers of redundancies at any specific site.”

Job cuts proposals at rocket range

25 July 2016