Administrators appointed to Derry firm Schivo

Administrators have been appointed to a Derry aerospace firm, which is part of the Waterford-based group Schivo prompting fears for the future of 82 jobs in the city.

Workers at Schivo NI were informed on Friday morning that the factory, which was previously known as Maydown Precision Engineering, would temporarily close until the business was assessed.

Supplier

The Derry factory was a key supplier of parts to major aircraft manufacturers including Bombardier Aerospace.

Trade union Unite said the decision to appoint administrators had “come out of nowhere” and has questioned whether work at the Derry site has been “outsourced by incoming management in a cynical ‘asset-stripping’ manoeuvre”.

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Unite regional officer Philip Oakes said it was deeply concerned about the future for the workforce.

“Employment at the former Maydown Precision Engineering site in Derry has fallen to 82 over the last few years. Unite has repeatedly warned about the risk to these jobs following attempts by Schivo to de-recognise the union when they acquired the company 18 months ago.

Legislation

“Unite will seek clarity on whether the work previously done at the Derry site will now transfer to the Schivo (Ireland) site in Waterford. We would be very concerned if this turns out to be another case like Chain Reaction Cycles where large numbers of workers were made redundant after an external acquisition resulted in work being transferred elsewhere. Legislation is needed to protect Northern Ireland employees. It is simply too easy to make workers redundant here,” Mr Oakes said.

The rest of the Schivo group, which has other operations in Waterford and Leicestershire, is unaffected by the appointment of administrators solely to the Northern Ireland business.

Schivo is an engineering sub-contract manufacturing company which specialises in precision machining, sheet metal fabrication and sub-contract assembly.

It is not the first time that workers at the Derry firm have faced an uncertain future – but back then it was Schivo who stepped into rescue it.

Two years ago Schivo acquired the business and assets of Maydown Precision Engineering for an estimated £1.59 million (€1.86 million) when administrators had previously been appointed to the company in July 2014.