Condor: Cost of striking ship crew demands "astronomical"

Monday 17 February 2014

The costs of submitting to the demands of striking French crew would be “astronomical” says Condor chief executive James Fulford, who added that it would raise questions about the viability of the firm.

No ships have sailed between Jersey and France for 12 days over a dispute with French workers who want better terms and conditions. On paper, the Condor vessels sail under the maritime law of the Bahamas, but the workers want that changed to French law so that they get better pensions, earlier retirement, medical insurance and other benefits.

It has been estimated that the strike has already cost £500,000.

Over the weekend Mr Fulford released a statement about the ongoing dispute. In a tweet to a complaining passenger last week he said that the minimum demands of the striking workers would bankrupt the company.

Referring to the workers’ current contracts, Mr Fulford wrote: “The issue is that these contracts look OK in UK and the ChanneI Islands (and probably in Spain and Netherlands) but they don't compare as well in France with local (often subsidised) companies like Brittany or SNCM where under French law you get lots of extras: unemployment salary guaranteed for 2 years, excellent pension, low retirement age 55, pay for the rest of your life if you cannot do the physical work of a sailor, gold plated medical insurance etc all provided and untaxed by the employer.

“They are asking us to match this, but of course we couldn't just do this for our French crews, we would have to do it for all our crews and the costs would be astronomical.

“We have put together a set of private insurances for them that match the NHS in the UK, and pretty good permanent health insurance, but they want the Full Monty, which as I say would bring viability questions.”