Author: simon
50 Jobs May Be Lost At Red Funnel (UPDATED)
Wednesday, 7th October, 2009 at 10:45 am, Isle of Wight
Employment, Ferry, Island-wide, News, Overseas
Red Funnel are entering into a consultation about the future of up to fifty job losses under a structural review.
The thirty day consultation period has started with affected staff coming from both the able seamen and shore-side operations.
It is anticipated that up to 50 of these roles may be lost out of the company’s 412 permanent staff. Employees will be able to apply for voluntary redundancy.
Other staff including Officer grade staff (with the ultimate responsibility for the safety of Red Funnel’s vessels) will not be affected.
James Fulford, Red Funnel CEO, said: “Our business is actually highly seasonal. Only around one quarter of our traffic is carried in the 5 winter months but we currently retain 90 per cent of our staff all year round.
“We are a stable, well-run company but like every business in this economic climate, we have a duty to customers and staff to keep costs at a sustainable level and to drive customer service, quality and the highest safety standards.
“We are now working closely with staff and unions to undertake a review to align staffing levels more closely to the seasonal nature of our business.”
Red Funnel say that all sailings will continue normally in line with the published timetable.
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Eek, many crossings cancelled today on Red Funnel....
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How can Red Funnel continue with the same level of service but 50 staff less,sounds fishy to me,excuse the pun!
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I guess it depends on whether they are going to employ more seasonal staff.
For 7 months a year they operate three car ferries and for the other 5 months they operate two (and those two are generally not loaded heavily, so probably need less staff to marshall traffic at the ports), so I can see why retaining 90% of staff may be inefficient.
The thing to worry about would be if they employ less people in total during the peak season, when arguably they don’t have enough now (as anyone who witnessed the shambles after Bestival this year will know).
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Incidentally I see that one of the car ferries is out of action and won’t be running tomorrow, so there are some 2 hour gaps in service – http://www.redfunnel.co.uk/ferry-travel/service-information. Not a time good for this to happen when they are in the spotlight ….
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Great!!!!, just what is the point of giving them my phone number for notifying service problems if they dont use it?
Was booked on the 12.30 East Cowes to Southampton.
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Fantastic! Redundancies, no doubt, followed by a price hike…..My next ticket is only going one-way….guess where? (PS: There is no prize for the first correct answer, as this question is soooooooo easy!
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It amazes me that from various news articles, visitors to the Island are on the up.One source quoted that hotel bookings etc had gone up by 40.7%. Another one about the bestist Bestival ever!We have now got some walking festival comeing up in the middle the season- late October. How can Red Funnel justify redundancies due to the economic climate when the media seem to keep reporting how well this Island is doing!!!
Book Bladerunner the no frills ferry company.
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I have to agree with Pete. What is the point of having the LED thingy at Whippingham that costanstly says (all services are running normally)the message never changes despite being in the bestival queue!Half the bulbs have now blown,but we are encouraged not to leave the TV etc on standby!
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Yep this evening the sign was still saying everything is normal (well it would have been if all the bulbs were working). When I asked about it at the terminal I was told that it had been vandalised and they can’t change the message – you wonder why they don’t turn it off though.
Is this the first VB post that has been made from a Red Funnel Ferry ???
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Seasonal staff all well and good until something goes wrong. When a ferry breaks down (all too often in my experience) an otherwise quiet period gets very busy, and RF really need to turn ferries round quickly. If staffing levels are dropped to reflect the background level of activity, how will they cope with these peaks? Given that marshalling facilities are poor at both ends, and exit arrangements at Southampton are awfully slow I can see some very painful crossings ahead.
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I expect the next thing will be a greater consolidation of crossings, so instead of running half empty ships, they will have fewer crossings per day, but each will be busier. This is of course the purpose of the winter timetable, but I for one would not be surprised if even more crossings are removed. Am I correct in thinking that as a private company they have no legal requirement to provide a frequent, regular service even if it is loss making?
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