Engineering news
Up to 600 jobs are under threat at Leeds-based oil and gas engineering company OneSubsea.
The company, which is owned by oilfield services giant Schlumberger, told its workforce that it was considering stopping manufacturing at its Leeds factory in 2017.
It blamed the “most severe downturn of the past 30 years” in the oil and gas sector, which has seen “operators significantly reducing their investment”.
OneSubsea currently has 929 staff in Leeds and under the proposal some will remain at its site on Queen Street, Stourton.
In a statement, OneSubsea said a drop in orders meant many of its plants were “underutilised”.
A spokesperson said: “This is only a proposal at this stage and we will be conducting consultation with the unions and employee representatives and make every effort to try and mitigate as much as possible the impact on our employees.”
Chris Daly, regional officer at Unite the union, said: “This is appalling news that came out of the blue. We knew that there was a downturn in the oil price, but we had no inkling about the scale of such job losses.
“This is a devastating blow for the workers and their families and, more widely, it will have an adverse effect on the Yorkshire economy – these are skilled jobs that we can’t afford to lose as a manufacturing nation.”
Daly added: "This sad news reinforces the case that the government’s much vaunted industrial strategy really needs to develop teeth quickly to protect such prized manufacturing jobs.
"Unite’s goal in the days and weeks ahead is to make the case to mitigate the job losses envisaged at OneSubsea and offer our members the maximum support at this difficult and worrying time,” he said.