Halliburton is being urged to talk to the local community in Arbroath over the future of 275 jobs at its manufacturing and services facility in the town following the announcement that the Houston-based company is shedding another 5,000 workers from its global headcount.
The company is understood to be consulting 22 staff regarding their futures at Arbroath.
Halliburton is cutting another 5,000 workers, or 8% of its remaining global workforce.
The world’s second-largest oilfield services provider said last month it cut nearly 4,000 jobs in the final three months of 2015 and indicated more could come this quarter.
Halliburton will have let go nearly 29,000 workers, or more than a quarter of its headcount since staffing reached its peak in late 2014.
Independent Arbroath councillor David Fairweather, who has friends who work at Arbroath plant, called on Halliburton to be more open and give a clear indication about the future of the local plant.
He said: “We’ve had no details of what their plans are. If Halliburton leave Arbroath it will be a catastrophe for the local community.They need need to be more open. People are very worried about their jobs. Keeping schtum doesn’t help.”
Local MSP Graeme Day and his SNP Westminster colleague Mike Weir, have written to the company offering to meet, but the company has declined.
Mr Dey said: “We wrote to Halliburton Europe last week but have not received a response. We wrote to Halliburton in Arbroath and today I receive a response referring us to the company’s public relations department in the US.
“I have been in touch with a couple of the people affected to let them know that local PACE (Partnership Action for Continuing Employment) team can provide support and for that information be shared with other affected.”
“It is a very tough time for the engineering sector as a whole and we want to be supportive but it would be good if the company was prepared to open up and engage.”
Halliburton spokeswoman Emily Mir said: “Halliburton has made adjustments to its workforce at Arbroath based on current business conditions. Halliburton will continue to monitor the business environment and will adjust the size of our workforce to align with current business demands as needed.
We value every employee we have, but unfortunately we are faced with the difficult reality that reductions are necessary to work through this challenging market environment.
“Details of specific businesses and the number of employees is competitive information and therefore unavailable.
“We regret having to make this decision but unfortunately we are faced with the difficult reality that reductions are necessary to work through this challenging market environment,” Mir said.
In January, Halliburton reported net losses of £467.7million, compared with profits of £2.5billion the year before.