16 Jul 2002
Around £1.6 million pounds in Government support for the Longannet miners, amounting to £5000 each, will be welcomed as good news, Scottish Secretary Helen Liddell said today.
Mrs Liddell said:
"The £5,000 per head for ex-British Coal miners at Longannet deep mine will be welcomed by miners and their families. The payments will go some way to relieve some of the obvious difficulties resulting from the closure of the mine."
The payments will be made to mineworkers at Longannet who transferred from British Coal at privatisation and who are not already in receipt of British Coal redundancy payments.
NOTES TO NEWS EDITORS
1. Today's payments at Longannet are on a similar basis to those announced today for the miners at the Selby mine in Yorkshire.
2. The principle of Government support for redundancy payments in the coal and steel sectors lies in the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) Treaty, which expires on July 23rd. The Government has already made use of the provisions of the ECSC Treaty in similar circumstances to make special payments to steelworkers following the announcement of a programme of jobs cuts and closures throughout the UK by Corus in 2001. All payments are subject to agreement from the European Commission. No further coal or steel redundancy payments will be put in place by the Government once the European Coal and Steel Community Treaty has expired.
3. The mine closed in March this year due to a flooding incident.