"We can’t even recover an anchor": Royal Navy Portsmouth ops crippled as staff lose jobs in contract "blunder"

Several tug boat workers and engineers who operate at HMNB Portsmouth were strongly encouraged to take voluntary redundancy after a new contract was agreed. A mammoth ten-year £850m agreement, which started on October 1, was struck between Serco Maritime and the Ministry of Defence (MoD). Controversy has persistently shrouded the new arrangement.

The Prospect Union, which represents many of the infrastructure employees, has rallied against the contract and says it cannot meet the scope of aircraft carrier deployments and other operations. Negotiations officer Nathan Morrison said Serco will need to hire people back as the workforce is now too small.

He told The News: “The MoD has made a blunder and agreed on the quiet that they’re going to fund the services from Serco again, but wait a couple of weeks or months. It’s a ridiculous situation where they have created all this drama by making people redundant.

“They’ve recognised it can’t meet operational requirements, but they’re not going to publicly admit it. They’ve created a stupid position for themselves. The roles are going to need to be filled again. We expect them to be re-advertised in around two to three months. Why on earth the MoD didn’t listen to us in the first place I don’t know.”

How many Portsmouth dockyard workers have been made redundant?

The Prospect Union said a total of 34 jobs have been cut. This includes 17 across various roles including passenger carrier personnel, fuel delivery personnel, pilot crews, chief engineer on tug boats, tank cleaning operatives, able seaman, and management. A further 17 have been lost in afloat services. Headcount has reduced from just over 100 to the mid 80s.

The £850m agreement, signed in May, covers all in-port services at HMNB Portsmouth, as well as HMNB Devonport in Plymouth and HMNB Clyde in Scotland. Essential activities cover the towing of warships out of the harbour, bunkering and watering, tank cleaning, passenger services, trials work, munitions and nuclear safety drills. It also includes the procurement of 24 new vessels, with subcontractor Damen Shipyards assigned to build them.

“We can’t even recover an anchor now?”

Mr Morrison said it’s likely another tendering process will be made under a different name to secure more staff, or annexes will be created to the three current agreements. He added that millions of pounds has been spent on redundancies that shouldn’t have happened. Employees went on strike in February after being left out in the cold while contract talks continued, with the threat of redundancies hanging over their heads for several months.

“There is a lot of dismay among the membership, and there will be difficult questions asked if people go on redundancy and come straight back after a few months,” Mr Morrison said. “They’re really stressed and disappointed. I don’t think Serco care, The whole VR process was really poor, with a real lack of communication and information that was below what the workforce expects. Morale in the workplace is at an all-time low.”

As previously reported in The News, the government body was seeking a £250m reduction from the previous £1.2bn agreement. The current deal is worth just over £1bn across three contracts. The Prospect Union believes Royal Navy operations will be limited under the new arrangement, something which the MoD has always denied.

One anonymous tug boat worker, who asked not to be named to protect his professional relationships, said: “The Royal Navy will be big losers in the end. We can’t even recover an anchor now. I believe the end users in Portsmouth have not been informed of the reduction in services and will not be able to efficiently deliver warships at sea. The Royal Navy will most definitely be impacted by the redundancies and it will affect the operational capability to deliver warships back to sea in an efficient manner.”

When asked about the redundancies, a Serco Maritime spokesperson said: “There have been no compulsory redundancies as we move to meet the reduced requirements set out in the new MoD contract. We are fully able to meet those new requirements and keep delivering a first-class operation.”

A Royal Navy spokesperson said: “The new Defence Marine Services contracts are designed to meet all operational requirements under a system of prioritisation and providing the best value for the taxpayer.”