A rally at the Scottish Parliament today will call for action to find a way out of a payments dispute that has brought Scottish offshore contractor Burntisland Fabrications (Bifab) to the brink of bankruptcy.

Bifab, which employs 1,400 staff largely through agencies at three Scottish sites, has two contracts worth £100 million to manufacture jackets and other fabrications for the Beatrice offshore wind farm. The wind farm, a joint venture of SSE, Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, and China’s CDIC, is due to go into operation in 2019. But a dispute between Bifab and offshore contractor Seaways Heavy Lifting (SHL) has frozen cashflow at the Scottish company. Staff are said to have been working without pay this week to finish the contract, while attempts are made to resolve the dispute.

With the threat of administration looming, yesterday joint trade union representatives met Keith Brown MSP, cabinet Secretary for Economy, Jobs and Fair Work to press the case for urgent stakeholder intervention to keep BiFab afloat. GMB Scotland secretary Gary Smith said, “This work and this contract will be completed in Scotland if everyone pulls together – there is a way forward here. But the spotlight now needs to be put firmly on SSE which controls the billion pound Beatrice contract, the Dutch contractor SHL at the root of the payments dispute and also the UK government who have £21 million of taxpayers’ money underwriting this.”