WORKERS decommissioning the Dounreay nuclear site feel undermined, undervalued and are deeply concerned about health and safety, claiming managers give higher priority to hitting targets than their duty of care.
The GMB union is now seeking an urgent meeting with the Scottish Government to discuss the findings of a survey of its members at the Caithness plant.
The survey revealed concerns over a perceived lack of control shown through recent safety incidents. The union said one worker had summed up the feelings of many with the statement: “How many fires, people getting hurt, improvement notices, environmental non-compliance, main entrance barriers getting damaged, stress cases and bullies, fuel/oil spills and missed equipment does it take..."
The high turnover of senior management; low levels of staff morale; high sickness levels, and the poor value to the taxpayer of the decommissioning programme, have also been highlighted in the survey.
In addition the workers’ sense of alienation was exacerbated by discontent over pay issues and bonuses.
The last Dounreay reactor ceased operation in 1994 and in 1996 the reprocessing of nuclear fuel ended.
The plant is currently being decommissioned and demolished by Dounreay Site Restoration Ltd (DSRL) under a contract from UK Nuclear Decommissioning Agency (NDA) which owns the site.
Liz Gordon, GMB organiser, has now written to the Scottish Government seeking a meeting with Business Minister Fergus Ewing.
In her letter, she said: “I’m sure you will agree that the matters raised are of significance, with such public concern about the site, not to mention public funds.”
She also raises concerns for the future: "There are concerns within the community for what happens after the Dounreay closure - the Nuclear Archives are finally being built, investment has been put into Scrabster and Wick Harbours but how many jobs have been created? We have seen several companies closing within the community adding to the anxiety and unemployed totals.
“If much of the future belongs to renewable energy and the hope of resurgence in the oil industry then significant investment in the local skill market is required. The economic legacy of the Dounreay Programme has not been fully grasped and unfortunately the latest contract management team have performed lamentably in this sphere.”
In 2008 the site closure programme was accelerated to a target date of 2025 at estimated cost of £2.6 billion. But earlier this year the programme was revised at request of NDA to accommodate additional work, resulting in a new shutdown date of 2030.
DSRL, a consortium of Babcock International Group, CH2MHILL and URS, employs up to 800 people on the site with several hundred workers employed by contractors also on-site.
A spokeswoman for DSRL said the company was preparing a response to the GMB.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel