DOZENS of workers at a Fife engineering firm have reportedly been told their jobs are at risk due to a “decline” in sales.
GMM Pfaudler, which supplies products and services to chemical and pharmaceutical industries, reportedly informed staff at its Leven factory on Thursday that it intends to shed around two-thirds of its workforce.
According to the Courier, the engineering firm is planning on cutting its workforce from 57 to under 19.
Workers at the factory were supposedly told the redundancies were due to a decline in its UK customer base and the knock-on effect on demand for its services.
The factory has been in Leven for more than 200 years.
Dom Prichard, an organiser for the union GMB which represents several members at the plant, told The Courier that the factory had seen a “decline” in recent years.
“The plans for the effective closure of this plant are, sadly, no surprise but that should not make it any more acceptable,” he said.
“We have endured the gradual decline of a workplace that was for generations a centre of high quality, highly skilled work and part of the history of industrial Scotland.
“It is not only a blow for the remaining workers, who are only a fraction of the numbers once employed there, but yet another blow to Scotland’s manufacturing and engineering sector.”
GMB will meet with management at the engineering firm to discuss the jobs at risk later this month, according to The Courier.
Prichard added: “We will meet with management urgently to ensure all possible measures are in place to ensure our members’ work and experience is properly recognised.”
GMM Pfaudler carried out redundancies in 2016 which saw its workforce reduced from 128 members of staff to 70.
At the time the job losses were reported due to the transfer of work to Schwetzingen, in Germany.
It has been reported that activity at the Fife-based site has continued to decline year-on-year, and the proposed layoffs will see the end of production of glass-lined products at the plant.
