Union warns of threat to UK shipping jobs

Dec 2 2009 by Alistair Houghton, Liverpool Daily Post

SHIPPING line Maersk has denied union claims that it wants to abandon the use of British and Western European sailors.

Maritime union Nautilus International has attacked Maersk, whose UK head office is in Liverpool, for a plan to axe 113 UK seafarers as it bids to slash costs.

Nautilus general secretary Mark Dickinson told LDP Business that he believed Maersk now had a strategy to reduce the number of UK, Danish and Dutch officers in favour of cheaper crews from regions such as the Far East. Maersk, which this year moved its UK and Ireland headquarters from London to Old Hall Street, says there is a recruitment freeze in Western Europe and that it is “determined to pursue all possible savings” following October’s announcement of UK job cuts.

But vice-president Henrik Sloth said that did not necessarily mean an end to European recruitment.

He said: “AP Moller-Maersk employs over 4,000 European officers in our fleet, and it is our strategy to continuously employ Western European officers.

“It is our strategy to achieve a more cost-competitive market position and simultaneously maintain the high level of competency and quality that has always characterised AP Moller-Maersk.

“Instead of looking at the nationality of the seafarer, we will going forward continually be looking at the cost, quality and competencies of the seafarer.

“This does not imply ceasing recruitment of officers from Western Europe. We operate in a global market and thus recruit from a global job market.”

Mr Dickinson said: “We know from correspondence between Maersk and the works council in the Netherlands that Maersk says there doesn’t seem to be a future in Western European officers.

“They’re now going down a cost-driven manning model for the future that is not one we would describe as a quality model.”

Nautilus, whose northern office is in Wallasey, has launched a petition on the 10 Downing Street website to ask the Government to sign up to employment and training proposals that unions and employers first submitted in 2007 to protect UK seafarers.

A spokesman for the Department for Transport said the Government was still considering the proposals. He said: “The proposals require a significant commitment of public money, and it is right that we consider all aspects carefully.”