More than 100 management jobs are due to be cut at BAE Systems just weeks after the Glasgow shipyards won a £10 billion order for warships.
An email delivered to staff outlined plans for an organisational overhaul across the naval ships business that will affect 116 roles.
The message came from Sir Simon Lister, the former navy officer who is managing director of the naval ships business at the company.
One staff member told The Times: “No one saw this coming.”
Only last month the Govan and Scotstoun yards on the Clyde were awarded one of the biggest ever export deals when Norway placed an order for five Type-26 frigates, adding to the eight being built for the Royal Navy.
BAE confirmed management roles were being shed across its naval ships business, which includes facilities in Portsmouth, Frimley and Filton in England.
The company said it hopes to minimise the need for compulsory redundancies by deploying as many staff as possible into other positions across the wider group.
A spokesman said: “We’ve undertaken a review to consider how we reshape and modernise the operations of our naval ships business following considerable investment in our infrastructure in recent years.
“Whilst we expect the overall size of the business to continue to grow, we’ll now commence consultation to potentially reduce our executive population by up to 116 roles.
“We’ll work alongside our employee representative groups to do everything we can to support our colleagues, including exploring potential opportunities in other areas of the company. In the meantime, our focus remains on delivering for our customers.”
BAE has invested in modernising its Scottish sites, including a covered shipbuilding hall to ensure weather-proof continuity of work, and a skills academy. The overall naval ships business has increased its workforce around the UK from about 4,800 to more than 6,000.
The UK government’s increased spending on defence is a boost to the supply chain.
Babcock is already building Type-31 ships for the navy at its Rosyth dockyard in Fife and hopes to secure orders for those frigates from Sweden and Denmark, which would further underpin the future of military shipbuilding in Scotland.
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