The future of Harland & Wolff will be decided following the outcome of arbitration talks with US rig owner Global Marine next week in London, management at the Belfast shipyard said yesterday.
The talks with Global Marine will focus on a final £23 million sterling (€37.5 million) payment for a deepwater drillship delivered earlier this month which is being demanded by Harland & Wolff.
Last week, Fred Olsen Energy, the major shareholder in Harland & Wolff, said a dispute over this payment had put the yard's future at risk. Management was expected to announce major redundancies yesterday.
However, the company said no decision could be made regarding the yard's future before the arbitration hearings scheduled to begin in London on September 5th.
The company has already made 280 workers redundant this year, leaving a staff of about 1,000. A further 250 are employed in companies dependent on the shipyard.
A delegation of Belfast city councillors led by Lord Mayor, Mr Sammy Wilson, was told last Friday there was only enough work for 500 staff and unions are preparing for substantial redundancies.
A Harland & Wolff spokesman said yesterday the management and board would continue to do everything they could to secure the yard's future.
But the financial crisis facing the yard is costing Fred Olsen Energy some £2.5 million every month and, with no major orders placed with the yard, it could face closure.
A spokeswoman for the Transport and General Workers' Union said the decision to postpone the decision was "unfair on the workforce".
She said the union was "raging" that further redundancies were being planned following a restructuring package reached with the company earlier this year which made 280 staff redundant.
The future of the yard is also threatened by the failure of the company to finalise two orders worth more than £500 million which were announced earlier this summer.
A source close to Harland's proposed $300 million deal with Luxus Holdings told The Irish Times yesterday that rival British shipyard Camell Laird had offered a more attractive package than Harland for two cruise ships.
He said the contract looked like going to the rival yard, despite the letter of intent signed between Harland & Wolff and Luxus Holdings.
Doubts have also been raised about the second proposed contract with Bahamas-based company Seamasters International.
