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Navy workers' fears over RFA jobs
THOUSANDS of navy workers are fighting for their jobs as the force prepares to cut its auxiliary staff, The News can reveal.
At a special meeting in Portsmouth, shocked employees were told the entire Royal Fleet Auxiliary could be replaced by private workers and vessels.
The RFA flotilla is the lifeline of the navy, delivering fuel, food, stores and ammunition to warships in both peace and wartime.
Workers were told that heavy pressure from the Treasury had forced the Ministry of Defence to show it can cut costs across the board.
The navy believes it can save millions by swapping civil servants and MoD vessels for private alternatives – available more readily during the recession.
But RFA sources say the move is a 'short-term suicide' that would rob the navy of centuries of experience on the front line.
A serving RFA worker, who was at the meeting at navy headquarters on Whale Island in Portsmouth, said: 'It's absolutely shocking. I couldn't believe the scope of what was being outlined.
'We knew that there were tough times ahead, but they told us we've got a couple of months to make a case.
'There are thousands of workers who now have to fight for their jobs in the run-up to Christmas.'
Portsmouth South MP Mike Hancock, who sits on the Commons defence committee, said it would be 'completely detrimental to the navy's ability to do its job'.
'I'm fully behind the RFA because they have decades of experience and they know what it takes to work well while under pressure of warfare,' he said.
'If you had private companies doing this job you would have the taxpayer shelling out premiums if they ever faced risk.
'It's something that they think will make a quick win, but it's really clutching at straws.'
More details are expected to emerge in two to three months' time, when the MoD review is prepared for a pre-budget report.
A Royal Navy spokesman based at Whale Island, Portsmouth, said: 'We will be undertaking a value-for-money review of the Royal Fleet Auxiliary.
'We are continually looking at how we can maximise the benefit that we obtain from the resources that are given to us and this review is part of that activity.'
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Friday 10 February 2012
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