Concern over green energy jobs for North Sea workers
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The Scottish Government has been warned “wafer thin” plans to replace North Sea oil and gas jobs will not win the confidence of workers worried about their future.
Scottish Conservative shadow net zero, energy and transport secretary Liam Kerr said Scottish Government projections contain “little to no detail” about how Scotland’s renewables workforce will jump from 19,000 in 2019 to 77,000 in 2050.
The North East MSP asked energy minister Richard Lochhead for a breakdown of the 77,000 low-carbon jobs he said would be created by the government’s Energy Strategy, and what their average salaries would be.
Mr Lochhead said the Scottish Government has not estimated these salaries, whether by sector or individually. He was pressed on this point by Mr Kerr during Thursday's portfolio questions at Holyrood.
Mr Kerr, said: “The SNP government’s projections hope there will be a huge leap in job numbers for the likes of wind and hydrogen.
“But having failed to deliver a promised 130,000 ‘green’ jobs by 2020, our energy workers will take this with more than a pinch of salt.
“Worse, the analysis of wages, training, or even job titles is wafer thin to non-existent. And there is little to no detail about how the workforce will take shape.
“We need to retrain existing workers and train new ones right now, not in 2050, but without having done the basic data gathering or reassuring the workforce that wages will be comparable, it just isn’t going to happen.
“No one enters into an industry without some expectation of wages.
“This is doubly the case in oil and gas where we have vastly experienced people, many of whom are on good money and they want to know how this change is going to affect their family, mortgage and pension.”
Mr Kerr’s parliamentary question followed concerns highlighted in the Draft Energy Strategy and Just Transition Plan.
Industry workers reported “low confidence” in the transition from oil and gas, and believed it will have a negative and “big impact” on their jobs.
He added: “It’s no surprise most employees support the transition but don’t have much confidence in the SNP’s ability to get it done.
“Everything the SNP and their Green partners say and do about oil and gas points towards a desire to switch it off overnight and throw our experienced, valuable workforce on the scrap heap.”
