Dozens of GMM Pfaudler jobs at risk in Fife

Dozens of workers at a Fife engineering firm have been told their jobs are at risk.

GMM Pfaudler informed staff at its vast Leven factory on Thursday that it intends to shed around two-thirds of its workforce.

The firm supplies a range of products and services to the chemical and pharmaceutical industries.

Currently employing 57 staff, headcount is to be reduced to just 19 under the proposals.

Workers were told the move was due to a decline in its UK customer base and subsequent impact on its order book.

The factory has been in Leven for more than 200 years.

GMM Pfaudler jobs

The latest development follows GMM Pfaudler carrying out another round of redundancies in 2016.

At that time the company had 128 staff. 70 workers, whose jobs were at risk, were told to not turn up to work.

It saw the transfer of work to Schwetzingen in Germany.

It is understood that activity at the site has continued to decline year-on-year.

Staff at the GMM Pfaudler factory in Leven have been told their jobs are at risk. Image: Google Maps

The new proposals will see the end of production of glass lined products in Fife.

Some business functions will continue. A small workforce will be retained to prepare equipment to be glass-lined at sister plants in Germany and Italy.

Edlon, a small fluoropolymer department, is not affected. Other departments that remain will be admin/finance, sales and stores. Staff will be offered voluntary redundancies.

‘Gradual decline’ of Fife factory

GMB Union represents several members of the workforce within the plant.

GMB organiser Dom Prichard said: “The plans for the effective closure of this plant are, sadly, no surprise but that should not make it any more acceptable.

“We have endured the gradual decline of a workplace that was for generations a centre of high quality, highly skilled work and part of the history of industrial Scotland.

“It is not only a blow for the remaining workers, who are only a fraction of the numbers once employed there, but yet another blow to Scotland’s manufacturing and engineering sector.”

GMB will meet with management to discuss the GMM Pfaudler jobs at risk later this month.

A sign on the entrance to the Fife GMM Pfaudler factory. Image: Google Maps.

Mr Prichard adds: “We will meet with management urgently to ensure all possible measures are in place to ensure our members’ work and experience is properly recognised.”

Leven, Kennoway and Largo councillor Colin Davidson said: “There has been a steady decline and lack of investment in this unique engineering plant.

“Levenmouth is ripe for investment. I hope we can work with the company to help them grasp the potential for growth of the plant and further development in the future.

“We cannot see this latest development as anything other than a temporary setback that can be reversed as Levenmouth continues to develop as a base for industrial growth”.