Ferry company safety shortcuts not acceptable

The Mar­itime Union says attempts to sack the crew of the Cook Strait fer­ry “Kent” by employ­ers Strait Ship­ping is dri­ven by attempts by man­age­ment to bypass new safe­ty reg­u­la­tions.

Mar­itime Union Welling­ton Branch Sec­re­tary Mike Williams says the threats to sack a crew is because the work­ers will not com­pro­mise on health and safe­ty.

Mr Williams says Strait Ship­ping was ordered by the Mar­itime Safe­ty Author­i­ty to put extra crew on steer­ing duties after a fatal­i­ty in Tory Chan­nel ear­li­er this week fol­low­ing a col­li­sion involv­ing a yacht and the fer­ry “San­ta Regi­na”.

He says Strait Ship­ping have ordered cur­rent crew to go onto steer­ing duties in addi­tion to their cur­rent duties.

Mr Williams says the com­pa­ny is try­ing to get around the need for extra crew to ensure the safe oper­a­tion of fer­ries.

“The attack on the crew is just a smoke­screen for the real issue which is an appro­pri­ate lev­el of crew, and our mem­bers are not pre­pared to have their safe­ty or pub­lic safe­ty put in jeop­ardy.”

Mr Williams says a nation­al meet­ing of the Mar­itime Union exec­u­tive in Welling­ton this morn­ing has giv­en its full sup­port to the crew and their stance for health and safe­ty.

“We can­not have man­agers try­ing to abuse reg­u­la­tions that are put there to pro­tect life and limb.”