Maersk cost cutting includes European officers

Maersk has ships laid up, which also means their crews have been off work.

Now, they will be let go.

From Fairplay

MAERSK’S UK operation will cut 113 officer jobs in the light of vessel lay-ups, the company told Fairplay today.

Lay-ups of 11 UK-flagged Maersk container ships meant the company was carrying “surplus officers for quite a number of months,” said Caroline Wolton, a Maersk Company representative in London.

Maersk Company – part of the AP Møller-Maersk Group – has met Nautilus, the maritime union representing the employees, to prepare a redundancy package, Wolton added.

Volunteers for redundancy will be taken from the pool of officers employed by Maersk Offshore in Guernsey and Bermuda.

And... they won't be taking on any new European crew, instead hiring less expensive crews from Asia.

Also, Maersk Company will no longer automatically employ cadets graduating from its training schemes because “it would be inappropriate to be taking on new employees at this time”, the company said in a release. There are about 560 British officers currently employed by Maersk.

This latest round of redundancies follows APM’s announcement yesterday that its container division Maersk Line will replace 170 Danish seafarers with Asians to save costs.