Labour issues warning over privatisation of ferry service
LABOUR has warned that the privatisation of CalMac’s services threatens to have a huge impact on many fragile communities.
The tendering process for the next Clyde and Hebrides Ferry Services contract is now under way.
The next contract will run from October 2016 for up to eight years and attract up to £1 billion of public funding.
The RMT union has already attacked the whole exercise as “unnecessary, expensive, disruptive and pro-privatisation”.
Although opinion is divided as to whether tendering is the only way to satisfy European state aids regulations, the Scottish Government, like the Labour/Lib Dem Scottish Executive before them, insists that it is required.
David Stewart, shadow minister for transport and islands, said: “There is a worry in my mainland and island communities that the contract could be lost to a hard-nosed, remote and non-unionised private sector company with a knock-on loss of quality of service and jobs.”
He said the Scottish Government should consider the success of the public sector East Coast rail service before privatising CalMac.
It is expected the private sector giant Serco will challenge CalMac for the routes.
The controversial multinational, which specialises in managing outsourced government contracts, won the £243 million six-year Northern Isles contract in 2012 to provide lifeline services to Orkney and Shetland.
Almost immediately there was a threat of strike action over the workforce’s terms and conditions and, a few months later, over planned job cuts.
Just after the contract was awarded, the Scottish Government announced sailings between Caithness and Orkney would be reduced from three a day to two.
A Serco spokesman would only say of the Clyde and Hebrides tender: “We are currently evaluating the opportunity.”
Martin Dorchester, managing director of CalMac Ferries Ltd, said: “We are not complacent and recognise that, with the support of our existing customers and stakeholders, we will have to fight hard to secure this contract.”