THE renewables manufacturer run from Canada seen as a key part of the future of Scotland's wind farm revolution is being put into administration.
It comes after the Scottish Government did a u-turn in backing struggling Burntisland Fabrications (BiFab) which had been believed to be on the brink of financial collapse.
The GMB and Unite Scotland unions said the part Scottish Government-owned BiFab's fall into insolvency "exposes the myth" of Scotland's renewables revolution.
The Scottish Government felt that providing key support for the ailing steel fabrications company at the centre of a wind farm jobs row would be seen as illegal state aid under European Union regulations.
Canadian firm JV Driver, through its subsidiary company DF Barnes, took total control of BiFab, which has yards in Methil and Burntisland in Fife and Lewis, for just £1 two years ago.
The ministers' support came by way of a commitment to effectively underwrite a contract to have a part in the the £2 billion Neart Na Gaoithe (NnG) offshore wind farm project in the Firth of Forth to the tune of £30m.
Scottish Government sources revealed that a re-evaluation came after BiFab in September failed to win any work on Scotland’s largest offshore wind farm, the multi-billion pound Seagreen project, located just a few miles from its yards in Burntisland and Methil in Fife.
The yards had been operating on a skeleton 30 staff - with zero contracts but at its height employed hundreds.
A company spokesman said: “BiFab can confirm that the board has agreed to place the company in administration following the Scottish Government’s decision to remove contract assurances.
"The company has worked tirelessly to bring jobs into Fife and Lewis with some success. However the absence of supply chain protections in Scotland and the wider UK have consistently undermined our ability to compete with Government owned and Government supported yards outside and inside the European Union.
"We would urge the Scottish and UK Governments to address these structural challenges as a matter of urgency in order to ensure that the benefits of offshore renewables are shared more widely with communities across the country.”
The Scottish Government's forecast of a jobs bonanza from the offshore wind farm revolution have previously been described as "a pipe dream" as it emerged it has created just 6% of the 28,000 direct jobs predicted by this year.
Joint trade union secretaries Gary Smith and Pat Rafferty said: “The workers and communities dependent on these yards have fought so hard for a future and everyone was hoping that 2021 would finally be the turning point.
“Shamefully the Scottish Government has buried these hopes just in time for Christmas and they have worked together with UK Government in doing so."
They added: "BiFab’s administration exposes the myth of Scotland’s renewables revolution as well as a decade of political hypocrisy and failure, in Scotland and the rest of the UK.
“A decade on from the promise of a ‘Saudi Arabia of renewables’ and 28,000 full time jobs in offshore wind manufacturing, we’ve been left with industrial ruins in Fife and Lewis."
The Scottish Government's low carbon strategy published in 2010 described the large scale development of offshore wind as representing the "biggest opportunity for sustainable economic growth in Scotland for a generation" with Scotland having an estimated 25% of Europe's offshore wind potential. It said there was a potential for the creation of 28,000 direct jobs and £7.1 billion investment by 2020.
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