Job losses add insult to injury

THE loss of six jobs at shipping company Sea Swift comes at a bad time for Cairns.

With the economy in deep trouble and thousands of workers treading water until industry bounces back from the impacts of COVID-19, the last thing the region needs is more job losses.

Six people out of a department of 40 and an overall workforce numbering about 400 may not seem many, but that’s six families without a significant income.

Sea Swift blames COVID-19 for the lay-offs during the restructuring of its engineering department.

“The restructure arose out of a detailed efficiency review of our capital projects and processes which resulted in extending out the major out-of-water refit program for our fleet,” chief executive Fred White told the Cairns Post.

The company denies suggestions by the State Opposition that the jobs have gone offshore.

LNP candidate for Cairns Sam Marino says he has spoken to several affected workers at the weekend who had been shown the door.

He said more than 100 years of experience had been pushed out in favour of cheap overseas labour in Indonesia.

“This is totally unacceptable and a real kick in the guts for these workers. To say they were angry would be an understatement,” Mr Marino said.

“We are talking about highly skilled workers such as boilermakers, engineers, fitters and turners, technicians and the list goes on.”

Hopefully as the city’s marine sector develops in the not-so-distant future, these skills will not be lost and the workers can be rehired in the Far North.

Nick Dalton

Deputy editor