Seafarers Unions are asking Minister Butković to take a closer look at what is happening in Croatia's largest ferry operator
Seafarer’s Union of Croatia and the Independent Union of Seafarer’s on Passenger Ships sent a joint request to Minister of Maritime Affairs Transport and Infrastructure Oleg Butković, who is also the president of the Assembly of Jadrolinija to dismiss the entire board of this company lead by Alan Klanac, Slobodna Dalmacija reported on April 4, 2016.
Heads of both organizations with strongest branch offices in the mentioned State-owned company stated bad business results and obstruction of collective negotiations as their reasons for dismissal:
- Business results show that the company is heading in the wrong direction and as a negative trend we can point out the decrease in revenues from Jadrolinija’s lines to Italy in times when total international traffic on the Adriatic recording an increase. With this downfall, Jadrolinija is losing its market share even when the demand is obviously increasing. From business results we can also see that the financial surplus was achieved due to favourable fuel prices and from collecting State subsidies for running less profitable lines and we have to state that those subsidies are a lot higher than the actual cost of keeping those lines running – Union representatives state in their letter and continue:
- Poor assessments of boat quality when it comes to pairing the lines with boats best fitted for that particular purpose and hiring ferries to run even when there are no passengers and cars (midnight lines for example) which can be seen from the statistics collected by the Coastal Liner Services Agency, also proves that the current management is not competent to run the company.
In the document signed by captain Predrag Brazzoduro, chief secretary of SPH, and Tomislav Urlić, president of NSPPBH, both unions also state the obstruction of collective negotiations and international working conventions as one of the reasons for dismissal of the Board which has been in power since 2013, since these obstructions are causing damages to workers and seafarers and they are placing the entire company in an unfavourable position given the future competition in the domestic market.
We have to note that domestic ferry operators are still protected from international competition until the end of 2016, but with the first day of 2017 international companies will be able to compete for our island routes which will probably bring good news to end users in terms of prices and availability, but it may bring new headaches to the national ferry line since it will no longer be able to rely on State subsidies alone to keep afloat.
