Business
Packet Still Wants to Reach Deal
The company has also said that any new staff would receive the same package as currently serving officers
The Steam Packet has reiterated that it is ready to reach an amicable solution in the ongoing industrial dispute about changes to terms and conditions.
It says representatives of the company are waiting at the table for Nautilus to do a deal.
The offer it says it has presented to officers in exchange for introducing live on-board conditions for most of its crew includes an additional six days leave and equivalent rest, taking the total to 42 days per annum, a 5% bonus for every day living on board (decreases by 1% a year), no erosion of existing benefits, including pensions and a choice of one week on/off or two weeks on/off.
This also comes with removing the treat to terminate officers’ employment.
A spokesperson said: ‘Under the current proposal officers would be expected to work for 4.7 months of the year. As has been repeatedly stated from the start, the Company does not want to lose any of its officers.
Therefore, it has repeatedly made the below offer:
- Conciliation, via MIRS or another service, for any officers who feel they are unable to live aboard the Company’s vessels, for any reason.
‘In exchange for the above offer, the Company wishes only to explicitly include ‘living aboard’ in terms and conditions of employment. The company is at pains to emphasise the inclusion of living aboard as a working practice does not mean all seafarers will be expected to live aboard at all times.
‘The norm for officers and crew on seasonal vessel Manannan will remain live ashore. Manxman will also always require a number of supernumerary officers and ratings who will join on a day-to-day basis.’
The Steam Packet has also said that the union has ‘acknowledged that the principal of living aboard was not objected to’ and that it can’t continue negotiations with no end date ‘without any clear idea of what Nautilus is trying to achieve for its members’.
The spokesperson added: ‘The last thing the company wants to do is to serve notice on its staff in order to achieve the changes it is seeking but, as there seems to be no other way of making progress, the company feels it has no option in order to bring matters to a conclusion.
‘Even after the service of notice, officers will be welcome to sign up to the revised terms and conditions at any point up to March 15.’
