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What i dont understand is that i know peeps who work here and they were told by management that sales e.t.c. were booming - projected sales were excellent - the livingston site was a lean manufacturing brilliant technical site producing and meeting unrealistic targets on a daily basis! so why are they shifting to ireland where they have laid off 500 staff and currently work a 3 week working month ? doesnt make sense to me - im deeply shocked at this result after hearing the news and feel sorry for my friends who currently dont know where theyre future lies and those who have spent 10+years here (which is a significant number) - what do they do next?

As a B&L employee of 12 years, we have consitently outperformed Waterford in manufacturing of soft contact lenses. The key is that B&L own the premises in the ROI and only rent here in Scotland. They also have a pharmaceutical buisness over in Waterford.

I trust the SNP administration to fight just as strongly for the Livingston jobs as they have for the Diageo cause.

with company tax at 12% in ireland and 28% in britain, and scotland unable to vary it downwards to atrract jobs, this will continue until the option to compete with other countries on a level playing field is achieved.
accountants care about money, not sentiment.

it is the fact the companies are profitable and making money that is the problem to the accountants, they want more for themselves!

Corporation tax is just one of the numerous economic levers we have no control over.

I am also an employee at Bausch & Lomb, it's sad news that 500 of us are going to be made redundant at a time when there are no jobs out there.
I think it is ridiculous that they are closing our factory when our performance and quality of work is far superior to Ireland, it's only months since we had a meeting with management telling us how well Livingston was doing and business was booming!

its complete crazyiness to find out from an email then a short 5 minutes talk however i dont blame scottish management - i believe they only found out within the last few weeks at best - the fact is the americans dont like the scots after the latest release of a certain prisoner - also remember the time that external consultant lady came to town - i believe the nail was in the coffin back then...... in the end why blame scottish management at the end of the day, when the plant closes they will be looking for new jobs too - as for govenment - would be very surprised if they can do anything - i cant see ostrov changing his fat greedy mind............back to his 2 million dollar a year role in the luxury of NY state.......

I wouldn't blame the scottish management for this situatuion either, they were just doing their jobs at the end of the day. I have to say that our Director for B&L Livingston did look sincerely upset at our meeting. As he said himself he couuld't believe that months earlier he was telling us how well we were doing not knowing what was around the corner!

Yeh i think Bryan did look upset when he told us yesterday - at the end of the day hes gotta find another job too, what upsets me is those that have just had new borns recently and those currently on holiday unaware of this ridiculous decision - this is absolute ludicrous and we constantly outperform waterford on an ongoing basis. I suppose senior management were unaware at the time when we were told of our successes what was going to happen but i surmise that when the woman came from that consultancy for project competitiveness at such short notice - we were doomed. Im deeply concerned about the future and can only hope another job is out theyre for not just me but for all the other hard workers that arent just great people but totally professional about theyre job at B & L scotland - fingers crossed........ shame we are run by yanks! Grant B i dont think the government can do much mate!

"the fact is the americans dont like the scots after the latest release of a certain prisoner"

Blaming the closure on this issue is utter nonsense.

Having just visited a revitalised Scotland on holiday for the first time in 35 years, I have a lot of sympathy for the people who work at B&L. However, the inescapable fact is that when you have subsidiary plants of foreign owned companies in the UK, they are easier to close down and cost less to close down than subsidiaries elsewhere in Europe. Additionally, UK government agencies tend to stand on the sidelines and watch while manufacturing jobs disappear but they ensure that there are lots and lots of government jobs for themselves and their friends. The excessive amounts spent on new parliament buildings in Scotland and Wales tell us where government priorities lie. Within 20 years, all manufacturing that can be done outside the UK will have moved or closed, leaving only those jobs that have to be done here for geographical or time reasons. The future is not at all bright.

I'm sure I'm not the only person in Britain to have been asked how my work was doing the other day

but I'm probably one of the few who said that everything seemed OK

Today I'm one of the 500.

Three tales of our times, for sure and tales of a past so long that saga springs to mind.

Think of the Proclaimers` song and just up date it, B&L no more, Kilmarnock no more. The possibilities are, sadly, endless.

As long as we import what we can grow and manufacture, as long as we don`t have fiscal autonomy, ie independance, and as long as we remain blind to rampant globalisation nothing will change.

Perhaps the Irish Government has offered subsidies for the Waterford plant? It's the way it goes. Foreign company is attracted to set up manufacturing in Scotland based on subsidies/grants from Scottish Enterprise. Subsidies run out, factory closes and moves away to next country for new grants.

It's part of the reason Diageo have to keep their cost base low. If they go for "enlightened altruism" and don't reduce costs, then their profits drop, their share price drops and they get taken over by some foreign company. Next thing you know their bottling plant is in not in Scotland but Ireland / India.