ONLY last week, Weir Group chairman Sir Robert Smith was banging his corporate responsibility drum and accompanying this with a snappy lyric about how businesses "are run by people for people".

He declared: "Corporate responsibility is increasingly the overriding factor in attracting, retaining and motivating a talented and diverse workforce."

From what we hear, motivation may now be in shorter supply than it was around the Weir Pumps plant at Cathcart, on the south side of Glasgow.

Back in March 2005, Weir Group announced painful job cuts at this subsidiary but at the same time pledged to relocate it to a modern plant near Glasgow as it seized an opportunity to sell its valuable Cathcart site for housing. Nearly two years later, and not a cheep about this supposed new plant.

Instead, what we have had is a Weir Group spokeswoman saying the company is evaluating "all the options" for this subsidiary. This comment, in response to an inquiry from The Herald last week about talk Weir Pumps was about to be sold to Sulzer of Switzerland, is a very different message indeed from that in March 2005.

Asked repeatedly last week if she could rule out a sale of Weir Pumps, the spokeswoman felt unable.

So those people for whom, in Smith's own words, Weir Group is being run are not surprisingly feeling like the last to know.

Reading the runes, with- out any help from Weir Group, it looks odds-on Weir Pumps will be sold to Sulzer with potentially unpalatable consequences for jobs.

There is talk that South Korean group Doosan might be waiting in the wings if Sulzer does not bite at the right price.

Perhaps even more alarmingly, there is a suggestion that the business could be slashed to a fraction of its current size if no sale is concluded.

And Weir Group's response: "No comment."

It does not look good.

If Weir Group is merely having some communication difficulties, let it come out and say that the March 2005 plan is the only game in town and allay workers' fears. This would be a relief - given Weir Pumps' importance to the Glasgow economy.

However, even if as appears more likely sale is the favoured option, Smith and his board might do their people the courtesy of letting them know.