Further major job cuts are in prospect at the Harland & Wolff shipyard in Belfast, a union leader predicted yesterday.

Mr Jack Nicholl, Belfast regional officer with Amicus MSF and president of the Confederation of Shipbuilding and Engineering Unions, said he was told by sources within the shipyard that additional job losses were on the way.

When asked about the feared job cuts a shipyard spokesman said: "That's just speculation at the moment." He would not comment further. Reports have said that up to 200 workers will be let go out of a workforce of 350.

Mr Nicholl said the shipyard was building two ships for the British Ministry of Defence. These ships were due to be completed by January 2003 and no new orders were on the books.

"It's not feasible for the shipyard to continue with the number of people they have and have no work."

He said the steel workers who were used for the major shipbuilding, as against outfitting, phases of the work would soon be seeing demands for their skills drying up. "They are running out of work to do very, very quickly."

"The situation is a disaster not just for Harland & Wolff but for Northern Ireland," said Mr Nicholl.

He said that Olsen Energy, the Norwegian company that owns Harland & Wolff, was more interested in the land associated with the Belfast company than with building ships. "For the past number of years he's had no interest in building ships," Mr Nicholl said of Mr Fred Olsen.

There was a 50 per cent cut in the workforce last year and a reduction in workers' wages. Mr Nicholl claimed he was told by the former chairman of the shipyard company, Sir David Fell, that there would only be 50-70 people working in Harland & Wolff in the future.

"He said he didn't agree with my view that Olsen was only interested in the land and said the company was doing everything it could to get shipbuilding orders."

Mr Nicholl said the two Ministry of Defence ships currently being completed were a "sop" to the shipyard ordered by the British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, in connection with the peace process.

"Harland & Wolff has built some of the finest liners in the world, the market in liners is buoyant, so why is the yard not getting any orders?"

He said the company, the politicians, and the unions were letting the workers down. "It is a disgrace what is happening to these people."

The unions would have to take responsibility for the agreement last year to accept cuts so that orders could be landed. The orders never came.

"I'm forecasting that Harland & Wolff won't be there in the future." He also criticised politicians for allowing changes to the leases on land associated with the shipyard.