Red Funnel has announced that a number of Red Jet sailings have been cancelled for tomorrow (Tuesday) due to the absence of a critical crew member.
The cross-Solent operator advises that the 06:15, 16:55, 18:15 and 20:15 sailings from Southampton have been pulled, alongside the 06:55, 17:35, 18:55 and 20:55 sailings from West Cowes.
No further information has been given as to the short notice cancellation, nor any indication as to whether there will be further cancellations later in the week.
As I stated, these companies train a few staff members in few critical roles, then, when times are slack, can profit ‘should’ any one of these individuals not work for ‘any’ given reason by cancelling unprofitable trips accross the solent.
THAT or they are bad business people and should train all crew in all ‘critical’ roles.
whightlink are just as bad the ferry companies should never be privatised or remove their licence customers will not use the ferrie because of the cost
no they do not – they will train enough staff to cover the critical roles and train a further number, which is enough to cover annual leave of critical role personnel. They will however, not spend time and money training more people, who will never actually use the ability in a critical role, unless someone is sick or leaves at short notice.
If someone is sick or leaves without notice or gets sacked, then it means someone else either has to come in off their leave, agree to overtime or voluntarily agree to adjust their own hours to cover the shortfall until a longer term solution is found.
Staff cannot be forced to work overtime
So if the first sailing is 06.15, and the last one affected is 20.15, this critical crew member must ordinarily work 14 hour shifts?
no, it is probably two shifts and one is not available, so they have asked the other person to work a long day, starting just after 0615 and finishing before 2015.
So the 0615 and 2015 from Southampton has been pulled plus the 0655 and 2055 from Cowes. Perhaps if Red Funnel didn’t expect the said crew member to work such long hours and employ another they wouldn’t have to cancel sailings…just a thought.
That is a rubbish split shift even if the person is a critical staff member. 06.00 start finishing an hour or so later then restarting 16.55 until 20.55. No wonder they can’t get staff.
I do believe this may well be the first time the ferry company’s have told the truth? Cancellations due to a “critical staff member” absence, instaed of the usual rubbish…”technical issues”. Congratulations Red Funnel you’ve taken your first big step forward to treating us with honesty. Take note WightLink!
wightlink have stated many times that the boat isn’t running because of staff shortages.
Take it you work for a ferry company
No he don’t, our very own “rain man” knows everything worth knowing.
He is “the oracle”.
So what happens if the “critical crew member” is taken ill during a crossing? Would the passengers and other crew be placed in danger?
Nah they would just have to make the coffee themselves
Probably Covid related thanks to all the people coming over for the festival, the timing is right. But remember the festival was safer than going to the supermarket, it must be true as Giddings said it, utter twat. The island now has the highest number of cases of anywhere in the south now.
It would be enlightening to know just what these ‘critical’ roles are, without such staff our lives are in mortal danger.
And also the cost of the days training to gain the ‘certificate’ to prove that the staff member has at least attended and recalled the info for a few hours.
MOST of us have been on courses and most know what a farse most of them are.
All about the company avoiding litigation, showing they have done the necessary if the black swan event occurs.
I can’t speak for now but, years ago, when I worked on them (just after Red Jet 4 was brought into service), there was the Master, the Mate and the Onboard Services Officer (Obso). They didn’t even carry engineers back then.
All crew are required to know fire procedures, including prevention, use of fire-fighting equipment, and evacuation of passengers and personnel, use of life-saving equipment including life-vests and various different types of rafts, use of signalling and communications equipment… And so on. The Obso doesn’t just serve tea and coffee, they are there to keep the passengers safe and comfortable.
Is it the tea and coffee guy ?
The funniest thing is the tea and coffee guy-is also the cabin attendant who is sole responsible for every passenger on board and there safety, the guys upstairs commander etc are too busy…
So you best hope they sell enough coffee before an emergency, otherwise they might get the sack for lack of sales.
They are completely under paid for the responsibility and given a shoddy title so they don’t have to be paid more.
Don’t be silly, the “critical member of staff” is obviously the captain.