Up to 70 workers could leave Ferguson Marine as the Port Glasgow shipyard runs into a gap between the completion of MV Glen Rosa and the start of a four-vessel programme announced by the Scottish Government five months ago.
The publicly owned yard opened formal consultations on voluntary redundancies on Tuesday, saying work is reducing as Glen Rosa moves through final outfitting and commissioning ahead of an expected handover in the final quarter of 2026.
Ferguson Marine says the reductions are necessary to keep the business financially sustainable until new construction begins. The problem is that the four vessels intended to provide that next body of work are still subject to due diligence and no formal contract awards have yet been made.
Chief executive Graeme Thomson said the yard faces an “inevitable gap in workload” while preparations continue with the Scottish Government for contract negotiations. Ferguson Marine said the redundancy process would not affect completion or delivery of Glen Rosa.
The timing has brought a sharp response from GMB Scotland, the largest union at the yard, which described the proposed job losses as a “betrayal of a blameless workforce”.
GMB Scotland secretary Louise Gilmour said skilled workers were being encouraged to leave before the vessels intended to provide the yard’s future workload had arrived. The union has placed responsibility on ministers for failing to establish a continuous pipeline of orders after Glen Sannox and Glen Rosa.
The dispute exposes an uncomfortable gap between what was announced in March and what exists at the yard today.
On 3 March, the Scottish Government proposed directly awarding Ferguson Marine contracts for four new vessels: two ferries under the second phase of the Small Vessel Replacement Programme, a replacement for the marine research vessel Scotia and a replacement for the marine protection vessel Minna.
Deputy First Minister Kate Forbes told Parliament that the programme was intended to create a steady sequence of construction, allowing employees to move from one vessel to another. Ministers said the four ships would form the core of the yard’s workload for around five years.
But the announcement was not the award of four completed contracts.
The Scottish Government made clear at the time that the proposals had to pass legal, commercial and subsidy-control assessments. Engagement with the Competition and Markets Authority was also required before formal award decisions could be taken.
Those processes are still under way.
That distinction has become considerably less academic now that Glen Rosa is approaching completion.
In March, only days after the proposed vessels were announced, Ferguson Marine also unveiled its largest apprenticeship recruitment programme in five years. It planned to take on 24 apprentices, with ten beginning in August 2026 and a further 14 in January 2027.
At the time, Ferguson Marine said the proposed four-vessel programme would provide a five-year pipeline of work and greater employment certainty.
Five months later, the yard is simultaneously bringing in a new generation of shipbuilders and asking as many as 70 existing employees to consider leaving.
The situation does not mean Ferguson Marine has been entirely without other work. In July it completed three structural units for BAE Systems’ Type 26 frigate programme at Govan, work the yard hopes could lead to further opportunities in defence supply-chain construction.
But the four proposed public-service vessels are intended to provide the substantial, continuous workload on which the yard’s next phase depends.
Glen Rosa itself is now at Inchgreen Marine Park near Greenock for commissioning, quality assurance and preparations for sea trials. Ferguson Marine moved the vessel there in July, partly to free space at Port Glasgow for modernisation work at the shipyard.
Its completion will close one of the most difficult chapters in recent Scottish industrial history.
Glen Rosa and sister vessel Glen Sannox were ordered under a £97m contract in 2015 and were originally expected to be delivered in 2018. Ferguson Marine was brought into public ownership in 2019 after the previous company entered administration.
Glen Sannox eventually entered service in January 2025. Glen Rosa’s expected delivery has moved to the fourth quarter of 2026, while its projected cost to complete rose to £197.5m in January. The Scottish Parliament’s Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee has continued to scrutinise the vessel’s cost and timetable.
Against that history, the Scottish Government announced the four-vessel programme in March as part of an attempt to give Ferguson Marine something it has repeatedly lacked: a predictable order book.
It is also supporting modernisation of the yard, with up to £14.2m committed for improvements including equipment, infrastructure and production systems, although elements of that investment have themselves been subject to due diligence.
Economy Secretary Stephen Flynn said on Tuesday that the voluntary redundancy programme was part of efforts to modernise Ferguson Marine and make it more competitive. He said the action being taken by the yard’s leadership was necessary to help secure its future and that of commercial shipbuilding on the Clyde.
He also confirmed that steps required before the four vessels can be formally awarded are continuing, including engagement with the Competition and Markets Authority.
That leaves the yard in an unusual position.
The ships intended to underpin its next five years have been identified. The workforce needed to build them already exists. Money is being spent modernising the facility, and new apprentices are being recruited.
What Ferguson Marine does not yet have are the four completed contracts required to turn that proposed future into work on the shop floor.
As Glen Rosa nears the end of construction, up to 70 workers may now leave during the gap.
For a yard which was taken into public ownership partly to preserve Scotland’s commercial shipbuilding skills, that gap has become the central issue.
Sources
Ferguson Marine — Ferguson Marine announces workforce adjustments to manage transition ahead of new vessel builds — 18 August 2026.
GMB Scotland — GMB slates failure to back Scotland’s shipyard after redundancies announced — 18 August 2026.
Scottish Government — Investing in Ferguson Marine — 3 March 2026.
Scottish Government — Ferguson Marine: Deputy First Minister’s statement — 3 March 2026.
Ferguson Marine — Deputy First Minister announces Ferguson Marine’s largest apprenticeship intake in five years — 11 March 2026.
Scottish Parliament — Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee Annual Report 2025–26 — 24 March 2026.
Ferguson Marine — Ferguson Marine successfully delivers Type 26 frigate units to BAE Systems — 27 July 2026.
Ferguson Marine — MV Glen Rosa relocates to Inchgreen Marine Park as Ferguson Marine yard transformation gets underway — 29 July 2026.
