WORKERS at the troubled Burntisland Fabrications construction yards have accused bosses of seeking to sack full-time staff and replace them with temporary agency employees.

In a statement addressed to Scottish ministers, they said such a move would “seriously damage” any hope of winning new contracts.

It comes after BiFab ran into severe financial problems late last year, forcing the Scottish Government to step in and broker a deal with new Canadian owners DF Barnes.

Last week, unions warned the yards – located in Fife and Lewis – were now effectively closed with almost no workers left on the sites.

In their statement, the workforce said the new owners had not engaged with union leaders, and were instead seeking to replace experienced staff with agency employees.

The BiFab yards previously had a core workforce of 400 and a further 1,000 contractors.

Scottish Labour's economy spokeswoman Jackie Baillie insisted the claims raised “serious questions about the SNP Government's recent handling of the crisis”.

She said: "Trade unions and the workforce deserve praise for their courageous fight to protect jobs.

"Laying off the highly-skilled core workforce would devastate families and communities – and lead to a loss of skills and experience that would be impossible to replace.

"The SNP government simply cannot be in a position where it has allowed itself to be a facilitator for making skilled workers redundant and replaced with insecure agency work.

"That is an outrage and SNP Finance Secretary Derek Mackay must immediately address these reports and take swift action to ensure these skills are not lost for good."

Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie said the SNP Government had been “easily duped by this company and has now cleared the way for the casualisation of the workforce”.

He said: “We’ve heard very little from the SNP since they press released saving the yard back in April. BiFab workers are right to feel betrayed.”

But a Scottish Government spokeswoman said: “We are in regular contact with BiFab – including a meeting between ministers and senior representatives that took place this week.

“We have made a long term investment in the company, however we do not participate in operational management decisions.

“It was clear at the point new ownership was secured that conditions would remain challenging for the yards and new contracts would have to be won to secure future work.

“The workforce played a major role in securing new investment for the yards and the prospect of securing future contracts which DF Barnes is working toward.

“We have confidence that everything possible is being done to secure new contracts and restore employment to previous levels.”