Authority spokesman Andy Munn rejected the claim made by John McKendrick, Labour’s prospective Scottish parliamentary candidate for Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross. Mr McKendrick argued that staff at the site feel betrayed by the plan to set up a commercial company and maintained that 150 managers, engineers and scientists have been cherry-picked for the new business.

He also stated that Britain’s nuclear safety watchdog has questioned the fitness of the UKAEA’s new commercial management to continue running the Caithness site after accusing it of riding roughshod over rules meant to ensure its safe decommissioning.

Mr McKendrick described the developments as “deeply worrying” and said: “UKAEA must act swiftly to restore the confidence of the workforce at Dounreay and the regulators, and make sure safety, not profit, is at the top of its priorities.”

According to the Labour candidate, Mr Shah recruited around 150 of the site’s top staff and offered them lucrative personal contracts in May. The remaining 1050 staff received letters telling them they would become part of a new company that will be sold off to whoever wins the contract to decommission Dounreay when it goes out to tender in 2008.

“Workers tell me they feel betrayed by Dipesh Shah and his new commercial managers,” Mr McKendrick said. “Over the past two years, they have sweated blood and tears to meet his demands for faster and faster clean-up in the belief they were part of his plans for the future of UKAEA.

“Only now do they discover they are being treated like chattels, left behind in the break-up and about to put up for auction.

“I’m told many of these 150 people hold key safety posts at the site. What happens to them if Shah’s company doesn’t win the contract for Dounreay? Are they all made redundant, or will they be removed entirely from the site to work elsewhere, taking with them all the knowledge and experience they have about safety there?

“I understand Dipesh Shah is not renewing his contract later this year and will be leaving. As far as the workers I have spoken to are concerned, the sooner he goes and is replaced by someone committed to all their safety and well-being, the better.”

The plan to set up the commercial company is said to have concerned the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate of the Health and Safety Executive, which wasn’t told about the changes. The UKAEA is allowed to operate Dounreay under the terms of a licence issued by the NII, and any changes in the organisation of the site need to be agreed first with the regulator to ensure safety is not compromised.

“This is not the way a responsible licensee manages change,” the NII warned in a letter to the UKAEA’s director of safety, Dr John Crofts, who is based in Harwell. “No restructuring programme has been agreed with us and we will not feel in any way duty-bound to keep to any programme and promises you make to your staff at this time.

“The impression given in the letter is that staff are already allocated. There is no mention that future regulatory agreement is required. This is almost the equivalent of presenting the regulators with a 'fait accompli’ which, when this involves staff leaving the licensee, is clearly unacceptable. Staff will now have expectations of their future positions. NII will in no way feel it is obligated to agree with these allocations if there is safety concern.”

The NII copied the letter to safety reps inside the UKAEA and it has been circulated to union members at Dounreay.

It is understood the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority is also unhappy with the UKAEA. The NDA and NII are thought to believe that less than a dozen of only the most senior managers at the site should be recruited to the new company so that safety isn’t weakened.

However, UKAEA spokesman Andy Munn yesterday rejected Mr McKendrick’s claims and denied that the setting up of the commercial company, whose working title is UK Ltd, has compromised safety at Dounreay and resulted in staff being “sold down the river”.

He said agreement was granted by the Government last year to set up a commercial arm of the UKAEA and pointed out that the NII and the NDA knew about the plan. Mr Munn explained that 260 were recruited from throughout the authority and said around 130 were from Dounreay, Forss and Thurso. The new company will tender for NDA contracts in UK and for work in overseas markets.

Mr Munn claimed it was wrong to suggest the remaining staff would be “thrown on the scrapheap” and insisted that safety at the site would continue to be a top priority. “The NII will insist that is the case,” he stated.

Mr Munn acknowledged that the UKAEA did not keep the NII “up to date” with all the details about the changes as it was viewed as “an internal process”, but that has been rectified.

“I would like to reassure Mr McKendrick and the public that safety has not been compromised and will continue to be a top priority,” Mr Munn added.

Printer friendly version

Email this article to a friend

Bookmark this

---