By KEN SMITH

A MAJOR trade union is calling on the Government to ban Korean

companies from bidding for lucrative North Sea oil work, claiming that

unfair competition from the Asian country is putting thousands of

British jobs at risk.

The AEEU, the engineering and electrical union, says 15,000 oil

construction jobs have gone in the past year and more could follow

without Government intervention.

The latest yard to be put at risk is UiE in Clydebank, where 200

workers will be sacked next week because of a downturn in work. Shop

stewards estimate that without new orders, more than 1000 further jobs

could go by the end of the year, leaving the yard on a care and

maintenance basis.

The loss of fabrication work in Scotland in recent years has been

enormous. McDermott's yard in Ardersier is also on care and maintenance,

yet only last year it employed 3500 people. Brown and Root's yard at

Nigg is down to about 550 workers from 2500 last year and a peak of 5000

in the eighties.

The other major oil rig yard is RGC at Methil in Fife, where the

workforce is now more than halved at 700.

It is not disputed that the peak of construction work for the North

Sea has now passed but the AEEU is concerned that South Korean yards are

now targeting orders in the North Sea. The union claims that as the

South Korean Government subsidises yards by more than #200m every year,

it makes it impossible for British yards to compete fairly.

There are two major orders, together worth more than #130m, which are

likely to be announced later this year for the Philips company's Judy

field and BP's Andrew field, and the union wants the Government to act

now to halt Korean intervention.

Already, Korean yards have won the jacket and deck work for the BP

Forth field. Ironically, the Forth order, at more than #70m, was

announced only weeks after the Budget in which Petroleum Revenue Tax

changes were estimated to save BP #100m.

AEEU executive member Jimmy Airlie said yesterday: ''With the present

perilous state of the oil construction industry in this country, there

is no way that the UK Government should be allowing heavily subsidised

Korean yards on the bid lists.

''Strong and immediate actions should be taken to ensure that the UK

yards are not disadvantaged against this unfair Korean competition. It

is a scandal and a disgrace that this is happening when something like

90% of the jobs in Britian have gone in the past two years.''

At the start of last year, there were 20,000 construction workers

employed onshore in Britain, fabricating structures for the North Sea.

There are now about 5000.

The union has been tracking the 1600 members who lost their jobs at

Ardersier last year. A survey shows nearly two-thirds are still

unemployed, while others are in short-term seasonal work.

Only 19 of the 820 workers who responded said they found work as a

result of Government agency assistance.

The union also blames the Government for the lack of planning in the

development of the North Sea. There is now a dearth of orders while in

the 1989 to 1992 period there were so many structures required that the

UK yards could not cope and work went abroad as a result.