CAMMELL Laird's new owner has defended its decision to recruit foreign workers instead of local labour as new refit work begins.

Southampton-based shiprepairer A&P has recruited a team of Portuguese workers, through a sub-contractor, to start refit work on an Irish passenger ferry, Normandy, which arrived at the Birkenhead yard at the weekend.

The staff of 30 will be part of a team of around 500 employed during the project's two-week duration. The work, which will be carried out by A&P's core workforce, along with a dozen key contractors, who will be mostly from the Merseyside.

The news has angered some Merseyside employees who had been told they would be included in the work. But Andy Mort, finance director of A&P Birkenhead said it had been impossible to find the necessary staff in time to start work and told the Globe: "Tenders were put out to seven UK companies for one critical area of steel work, including four from Merseyside. Only one of these companies was able to provide sufficient supervised labour to complete the project within the time-scale allowed. As late delivery would cause serious problems to A&P's customer, an order was placed with the one company that could complete the work. This company has sourced most of its labour from Portugal."

Mr Mort says the company was not displacing labour in Merseyside, but was supplementing it while there was a shortage of staff.

Birkenhead MP Frank Field is due to meet with A&P management this Friday, and says he will discuss the situation with them. He told Globe that it was better to have some staff in the yard than none, adding: "The penalties of not having contractors in the yard are that the yard could close if the staff are not there to do the work."