Titanic shipyard Harland and Wolff to enter administration
The Belfast shipyard that built the Titanic, Harland and Wolff, will on Monday be placed into administration, a form of bankruptcy protection, a spokesman said.
The yard, whose huge yellow cranes tower over central Belfast, remains one of the most potent symbols of the city's past as an industrial engine of the British Empire.
It employed more than 30,000 in its World War Two heyday but has been in decline for over half a century and now employs 130 full-time workers, specialising in energy and marine engineering projects.
"There has been a series of board meetings the result of which is that administrators will be appointed over the course of the day," a Harland and Wolff spokesman said.
Workers last week locked themselves into the yard and refused to leave in a bid to take control of a process they fear will deprive them of their jobs.
A union representing workers said on Monday they would try to block administrators from entering the site, adding the best course of action was nationalisation.
Workers gave a letter to new British Prime Minister Boris Johnson last week calling for the state to nationalise the yard, but a British government spokesman said its fate was a commercial issue.
The latest move comes after Norwegian parent Dolphin Drilling filed for bankruptcy in June.
The Norwegian administrator of Dolphin Drilling did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
While administration would put 130 jobs at risk, it would not necessarily lead to the closure of the shipyard, much of whose land is on long lease from Belfast Harbour Commissioners.
Published: by Radio NewsHub