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P&O plans to double the time crew members spend aboard cross-Channel ferries could increase stress and fatigue and compromise safety, according to the author of a report that warned of the dangers of extending tours of duty.
Having sacked almost 800 workers without notice earlier this month, P&O plans to extend the tour of duty of marine crew – workers on deck managing the ship – from one-week on, one-week off to a 15-day shift pattern. Sources suggest customer services staff will move to an eight-week model.
Chief executive Peter Hebblethwaite told Scottish MPs this week that the new crewing model would help cut costs without compromising safety.
But Professor Andrew Smith, an occupational health psychologist who conducted research commissioned by P&O on its cross-Channel ferries, told Sky News extending shift patterns was not supported by his findings.
“We found that crews on the Dover-Calais routes experienced very high levels of stress and fatigue that potentially could have compromised safety. Not surprisingly, when you are in that situation you want to minimise tours of duty,” he said.
“Extending from the current one week patterns to two weeks would not be recommended on the basis of what we saw.”
Professor Smith was commissioned to conduct research in 2012 when P&O, then already owned by DP World, was considering extending tours of duty from a one-week pattern to two- weeks on, two-weeks off.
He surveyed almost 500 seafarers on the Dover-Calais route and 50 crew on the Larne-Cairnryan crossings, which then and now worked on a two-week pattern.
He found fatigue was significantly higher on the more intense cross-Channel routes.
“The number of crossings, the speed of port turnarounds, traffic in the Channel and lack of sleep all lead to a strong potential for fatigue,” he wrote in his final report.
Having…
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Source : skynews
