Working the ferry fleet
Marine Atlantic employs close to 1,400 people in N.L. and N.S. during peak season
Day 2 in a three-day series marking 120 years of ferry connection between Cape Breton and N.L.
Marine Atlantic is one of the biggest employers in Nova Scotia and Newfoundland.
The Crown corporation is headquartered in St. John’s and currently has 1,396 employees for its summer season — the ferry service’s busiest time of the year.
“During the summer season we’re looking for passenger service staff. We have a big demand for those types of positions on board our vessels, simply because we see the passenger numbers spike,” said Darrell Mercer, spokesman for Marine Atlantic.
“Year-round, we’re always looking for skilled and qualified people to work in engineering and, of course, our bridge teams, specializing in marine skills that we know industrywide are in demand.”
In total, 774 employees are working on Marine Atlantic vessels this summer.
The total breakdown of employees for the company is 744 people from Newfoundland, 632 Nova Scotians, and 20 people from other parts of the country.
The company’s customer relations department is based out of North Sydney and has two full-time staff.
Prior to the start of the summer season, Marine Atlantic held a number of job fairs in Cape Breton, Newfoundland and Labrador, and Quebec.
Mercer confirmed the company has hired upwards of 100 people prior to the 2018 peak season.
“We have hired a significant number of people through the job fairs — the fairs are one piece of what our human resources team does, but there are many more that they do from their recruitment campaign, but that will continue as we move through the fall months,” said Mercer.
“The challenge that we have from a HR perspective is that people get their information from different places, so a job ad that goes up on our website, for example, is not necessarily where people always go to look for jobs.”
Marine Atlantic recently started promoting employment opportunities on different career job bank sites online. They are also focusing heavily on social media platforms, including Facebook and Twitter, to attract younger employees.
Employees on the vessels work two weeks on and have two weeks off. During the two weeks on, the employees live on their respective ships.
“Marine Atlantic allows people to work closer to home, so for some of the people that have these skills and expertise and training that have gone all over the world in the shipping industry, they look at Marine Atlantic in their later years because they want to be home,” Mercer said.
“We’re competitive when it comes to benefit packages. There are many different opportunities for those people who would be interested in Marine Atlantic.”
Marine Atlantic employs 900 to 1,000 employees year-round.