Pinneys will close its doors, with half of its expected 450 redundancies to take place by the end of this week and the rest to follow next month.
The decision comes after its owners – Young’s Seafood – claimed that it had not been able to find any viable alternatives other than closure at the Annan site.
Trade union and cross-party efforts have been ongoing throughout that period to try to save the jobs. An expression of interest by cooked and sliced meat producers, Brown Brothers, was withdrawn.
The complete closure of Pinneys seafood plant is expected by early October.
Talking to SalmonBusiness, Unite Scotland industrial officer, Andy MacFarlane, said: “Unite are extremely disappointed with the outcome. Whole families have been crushed by the decision and it’s a huge blow to the community at that volume.”
Under government plans under the hung Conservative/Liberal Democrat coalition in 2012, the consultation period before large-scale redundancies could take place was cut from 90 to 45 days. With the figures possibly likely to reach 600+ instead of the 450 reported, Andy MacFarlane said that the 45 day period had been tough to work with.
“In terms of working in tandem with outside support and agencies, only having 45 days makes it incredibly difficult, and we feel that this needs to be urgently looked at.”
Young’s Seafood has been contacted by SalmonBusiness but has not responded.
