Council / Praise for council after ‘really successful’ recruitment drive on ferries
SHETLAND Islands Council (SIC) has been praised after a number of young people were recruited to fill roles on the inter-island ferry service.
No agency staff are currently being hired to keep the ferries going, Wednesday’s harbour board meeting heard.
That comes after a period of intense pressure on the ferry service, which saw temporary staff employed to keep them running and many working long hours.
Ferry operations manager Andrew Inkster said though the SIC had been “really successful in recruiting a number of young people” to jobs on the ferry network.
He added that was a “real bonus” for the council.
Councillor Stephen Leask, who represents Lerwick North and Bressay, said he had been aware of the increase in young staff on the Bressay ferry after a recent trip across.
He added that not having any agency staff was “quite a positive thing” for the council, particularly from a financial point of view.
And he said it was “always worrying” when ferry staff had to work a large number of hours of overtime to plug vacancies, adding: “We have to think about the staff regarding burnout”.
Inkster agreed and said they were “actively managing that” so that it did not become an issue.
Overtime was a “necessary feature of our work”, he said, but the council “have to be very careful” as not to overwork anyone in the process.
Meanwhile councillor Dennis Leask said on a recent ferry journey to Unst he had noticed that the entire deck crew were female.
He congratulated Inkster and his staff on “breaking through that barrier” in what he said was a “male-dominated service”.
North Isles councillor Ryan Thomson said it was “very heartening to see” the progress in recruiting ferry staff, which he added was “definitely noticeable” for anyone that was regularly using ferries.
However he said he wished that the council “could speed up the recruitment process”.
“It’s incredibly frustrating to see vacancies are there but you dinna see them advertised for months,” he told the meeting.
Thomson admitted some of that was “probably outwith our control” and that the council’s hands were probably “tied a peerie bit with the red tape involved”.
But he said some posts were taking “months and months” to be advertised, and he urged the council to move through the process quicker.
“It’s been a long process but there’s definitely been huge progress into staff recruitment in ferries,” Thomson added.
“That has to be congratulated.”
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