Ex Grangemouth workers to have 'priority consideration' for green jobs under John Swinney pledge

The First Minister made the announcement at the just transition summit in Edinburgh on Wednesday where he warned about the need to improve “public confidence” in the move to clean energy.

Making the announcement in his keynote speech, Mr Swinney confirmed it would “be conditional for any business receiving investment through the Grangemouth just transition fund to participate” in the prioritisation scheme.

Scottish Enterprise has been working with businesses and the Scottish and UK governments to secure new investment at Grangemouth. The First Minister has committed £25 million to the fund to support businesses to bring forward new propositions to secure Grangemouth’s future.

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Mr Swinney said: “This scheme will give workers made redundant from the refinery priority consideration for the new jobs that will be created through the Grangemouth just transition fund.

“It has been developed jointly with Unite the union, so that eligible workers, who meet the minimum job criteria and applicant cap, can secure new opportunities and we can ensure that their experience, their skills and their knowledge are not lost to Grangemouth or to Scotland.

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“Crucially, it will be conditional for any business receiving investment through the Grangemouth just transition fund to participate in this scheme. This is a just transition in action.”

Susan Fitzgerald, secretary of Unite the union, said: "Unite has fought every day for the replacement of the highly-skilled jobs lost as a result of the Grangemouth oil refinery closing. We continue to demand concrete action for workers during the energy transition, and that far more needs to be done to support new jobs in greener industries.

"The Grangemouth pilot scheme will apply conditionalities to companies in receipt of public sector funding, which will include a job interview guarantee for eligible workers. We understand this approach is a first across the UK. The scheme has involved the active participation of our Grangemouth members and it is one which Unite welcomes.”

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The announcement came as Labour UK energy minister Michael Shanks told the summit the jobs axed when the Grangemouth refinery closed was an example of “a transition done wrong”.

Mr Shanks said it was “abundantly clear that the lack of any plan for the future of Grangemouth was a significant problem”.

He said: “There was no plan when I arrived in this job 15 months ago. The first thing in my in-tray was the imminent closure of the Grangemouth refinery.

“As a result of that abject failure to plan for the future, not by one, but by two governments, the workers and communities have paid a heavy price.”

Mr Shanks confirmed more than 100 “viable inquiries” for Project Willow, which aims to hand the Grangemouth industrial hub a sustainable future.

He said: “We’re now ready to take forward those proposals by pooled investment with the private sector. We’ll have more to say on the initial projects moving forward very soon.”

Pointing to North Sea oil and gas, Mr Shanks stressed the transition had been “underway for years”, adding “more than a third of the jobs in that industry” have been lost.

In a dig at his political opponents, he added: “Burying our head in the sand about the sector and ignoring the realities of the need for a transition will not protect a single job, nor will it create a new one. Neither will abandoning the entire sector to turn off the taps completely.

“Failing to invest in the North Sea’s future at the same time will not safeguard jobs and it will jeopardise these communities in the long term.

“There are voices not far from our TV screens that regularly offer an easy solution to difficult problems, that’s getting louder and louder. Clean energy is the economic opportunity of the century. Waging a war on clean energy jobs, as the Conservatives and Reform seem to be doing, is economically illiterate.

“This must never become a binary conversation. The future of the North Sea lies in collaboration and in shared stewardship.”

Mr Shanks bluntly warned “our energy transition will crash and burn if we fail to take people with us”. But he insisted the Labour UK government was “determined to go faster on the years and months ahead”.

In his speech. Mr Swinney also confirmed the just transition commission, which organised the summit, will continue its work into the next parliament after May’s Holyrood election.

The First Minister said: “There is very much more contention about the necessity or a just transition or the approach to a just transition and even the necessity to tackle the issues of climate change than there was when the Scottish Government established this commission six years ago.

“Six years ago there would have been, essentially, unanimity about the nature and the scale of the challenge that we faced. Now we’re in an environment of contested political opinions about whether this action is necessary.”

READ MORE: MPs deliver 'grim' verdict on Labour's oil and gas strategy amid 'heaving job losses' warning

The First Minister warned “we will only succeed in this journey if we command public confidence”, adding “it’s the only way it will happen”.

“We have to be conscious around the challenges that exist around the delivery of a just transition and ensuring we have public confidence around the agenda,” he said.

“Trust in institutions is being tested, climate action is being politicised and the cost of action is rising fast. Where there are areas where public confidence is lacking, we have to address that.

“I hear loud and clear about the sense, the feeling that communities have of being inundated with applications.”