Transport / Council proposals to make employment on ferries more attractive
SHETLAND Islands Council chief executive Maggie Sandison has defended inter-island ferries staff after frustration with continued disruption, particularly on the North Isles’ services, appeared to reach new levels.
Several people have made their views public over recent days including tour operator Jolene Garriock and former Yell ferry master Steven Spence.
Garriock said the unreliability of the service put some of her tours into jeopardy while Spence said that communities in the north are being let down by incompetence.
Spence’s views, published here on Tuesday, were today (Thursday) fully backed by the Unst and Yell tunnel action groups.
It comes as a single vessel shuttle service is running today on the Yell Sound service due to staff sickness and a lack of available cover. Similar disruption has happened on the Bluemull Sound service in recent months.
Speaking to Shetland News on Wednesday afternoon, Sandison responded to some of the criticism levelled at the council, acknowledging that currently “staff on the ferries and in the office are having a really hard time”.
She said council management is working on proposals to alleviate the staffing pressures on the inter-island ferries which are predominantly caused by an aging workforce leading to more staff retiring than joining the service.
Proposals to be presented to the September meeting of the transport and environment committee will include:
- A more flexible rota to make working conditions more attractive
- Implementing a training programme
- Increasing the pool staff who could move across various services
- Changes to the terms and conditions to make employment more attractive.
Sandison acknowledged that the service was under severe pressure and added that staff’s “goodwill is keeping our services going at the moment”.
Options such as exchanging crews across different ferry services are limited, she continued saying, as “staff have to be certified on specific vessels and specific routes to be able to work”.
Sandison added: “You can’t just take somebody who has experience working on a fishing boat for instance as an engineer and assume they can work on a ferry. They have to have certification depending on the vessel type.
“We are trying to train more pool staff and take them through their certifications, and grow people within the service but that obviously take time.
“So, we can take on a deckhand, but it will take a number of years for them to become a mate or even a master. You invest for years into somebody before they can take the job.”
Sandison said losing staff to the private sector such as the salmon farming industry has not been a problem in the past, but it has become an issue over recent years.
However, the council is looking at making changes to the working rota in the hope of making it more attractive.
But she countered the perception that terms and conditions, including the wage package, were generally more attractive in the private sector.
“When looking at the whole package (including pension and sick pay) we are often better than the private sector,” she said.
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