In the widespread concern over the Scottish Government’s intentions for the future delivery of Clyde and Hebridean ferry services, Dave Thompson MSP yesterday (11th September) asked the First Minister what assurances he could give about the future of the jobs of CalMac staff should CalMac lose the tender for these lifeline services.
The TUPE (Non) defence
The answer was ‘TUPE’, which Mr Thompson has accepted as reassuring, though many would not.
TUPE is the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations and allows for the transfer of staff on existing terms of employment from one service provider to an incoming one. It does not, however, oblige the incoming company to retain all those staff or to maintain the employment conditions on which they transferred.
TUPE obliges an incomer to take staff on – not to keep them or to keep them in the manner to which they are accustomed.
While the First Minister responded to Mr Thompson’s queries with ‘TUPE’, he went on say that CalMac workers should take ease in the arrangements made over conditions of service and pension rights made with the new operator of the Northern Isles service.
Such arrangements are outwith the reach of TUPE’ and result from special negotiations between the operator – Serco, in this case and unions – here the RMT union.
The First Minister’s answer was here deceptive on three counts.
The attempt to protect NorthLink staff was not a part of the government’s concerns in the contract which Serco was given to take over the Northern Isles services. This was taken on by the RMT union, working to protect the interests of its members.
We understand that the negotiations Mr Salmond mentioned for the staff on the Northern Isles ferry services to Orkney and Shetland are ongoing and not yet complete.
The situation and employment negotiations with the Clyde and Hebridean ferry services would be very subsstantially more complex than those over the Northern Isles services, with much greater human anxiety on one side and much greater cost implications on the other.
We know that CalMac skippers on the Clyde and Hebridean routes are transferring their union memberships to RMT in the expectation of tough and lengthy negotiations and possible strike action.
The intent to privatise
From the First Minister’s performance yesterday – which we watched live online, we saw nothing to cause us to change our evidenced view that the Scottish Government does indeed intend to privatise the west coast lifeline services, with Serco – the new Northern Isles service provider – a probable shoe-in.
The government does seem to have backed off flogging the route services in bundles to all comers but the nuances in yesterday’s exchanges indicated that CalMac is not seriously in the frame and that the contract will go in its entirety to a single private sector provider.
There are and will be serious questions to be asked on this and rigorous scrutiny to be paid to exactly what the government proposes, tenders and contracts.
The First Minster is famously slippery and he is no less oleaginous than usual on this issue, Any government minister who trots out the formula that there are ‘no plans’ for whatever, is a long way from being transparent. What the rest of us understand by ‘plans’ and what politicians mean by ‘plans’ are very different things.
The contract for the Clyde and Hebridean lifeline ferry services is due to go out to tender, with a new contract beginning on 21st September 2013. CalMac’s contract runs out on 20th September 2013.
This is just over a year away and still there is no tender specification and no foregoing publication by the Scottish Government of its final Scottish Ferries Review. This will carry the government’s strategic policy position on the provision of lifeline services – resulting, so they say, from what has been a pretty low rent consultation exercise and, strategically and intellectually, a poor quality draft review.
Commenting on yesterday’s exchange, Dave Thompson said: ‘The ferries not only provide a crucial service for our communities throughout the West Coast and Islands, but they are also a vital source of jobs.
‘While it is necessary (Ed: under EU law to which we are subject) to put the contract out to tender, it is important that any new service provider protects the jobs that Caledonian MacBrayne currently secure.
‘The vast majority of the current workforce are based on the West coast, and it would be a huge blow to these communities if these jobs were threatened.’
Mr Thompson’s remarks here make it clear that he too anticipates a change of provider – and all this is in advance of a tender specification and a tendering process.
The situation is much more complex than job security – which TUPE does not seriously protect.
Serco, the likely beneficiary, is a powerful and experienced business but has no real experience of ferry operation. A scoot across the Thames in London was its sole ferry experience before being given the NorthLink contract.
The west coast services – like the Northern Isles ones, are lifeline services but the situation is far more complex in every way.
The number and nature of staff, of routes, of types of boats, of piers and harbours, of sea conditions and weather systems, of ways of moving boats around the routes to cover for servicing, refits and technical problems, of service frequencies and community needs is neither knowledge nor experience a new kid on the coast can gain by inhaling.
CalMac appear to have the hex already applied to them. So much for due process and transparency.
The Argyll position
We understand that, as well as SNP MSPs, members of the administration of Argyll and Bute Council have been made aware of the intentions of the Scottish Government through the local MSP – and there is not a cheep out of any of them.
Yet this is an area whose internal ferry routes are utterly vital to communications, business and tourism, the only realisable target for economic sustainability and development.
Argyll and Bute could not be more affected nor more important in this issue.
Of the 25 routes on CalMac’s schedule, 14 of them – 56% – are services to Argyll and Bute.
This will be the area most affected by any change.
It will be battleground for the emergence of the correct result on this issue and those concerned about it from any perspective need to start now to make their views and their voices widely known.
Not only jobs but lifeline services
Mr Thomson also said of yesterday: ‘I am also very pleased that the First minister confirmed that there were no plans to unbundle the routes and that the contract would go out as a whole.’
He too knows the inside story and he too is saying nothing.
Of all things, lifeline services have to be the focus for the sort of serious exploration of issues we are not getting from government and have no reason to imagine that they have taken place to any serious degree within government.
This is the arena where the relative merits of public and private sector provision should be tested, because lifeline services are most germane to the issue.
There is also no reason why services provided by the public sector should be any less well managed, any less efficient and cost efficient than might be the case with the private sector.
The question is one of absolute assurance of service continuity (weather permitting) – without occasional or ongoing overt or, more likely, covert injections of extra taxpayers cash to a private profit taker.
Responses to this may raise questions of why special arrangements to ensure this imperative – which cannot be cost free – might me made available in the event of a private sector supplier but not with a public sector service which already delivers on those guarantees.
There is no definition of a “lifeline service” – read the Ferry Service review. Transport Scotland is to be left to make up its mind route by route with no published objective critera for the decision.
That is a major issue for all ferry users and why an independent Ferry Regulator is required – another issue sidestepped in the review.
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And, on the subject of ‘lifelines’, it would appear that SPT wouldn’t recognise one if you threw it at them.
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Parliamentary Question and Response for information and interest:-
Question S3W-04762: Jackson Carlaw, West of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party, Date Lodged: 28/09/2007
To ask the Scottish Executive what its definition is of a lifeline ferry service.
Answered by Stewart Stevenson (25/10/2007): There is no definition, in statute, of “lifeline ferry service”. However, the previous administration noted that, in subsidising ferry services, its objective was “to ensure the provision of a suitable standard of transport connection, in terms of quality, frequency and capacity, to island (or, in some cases, remote peninsular) communities which would otherwise suffer social and economic disadvantage”. I would not dissent from that definition.
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 25/10/2007
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is it not snp policy to hand either overseas/non scottish companies the big money contracts ,just like serco with northlink ?
surely its in the taxpayers best interest for public bodies like macbraynes winning these contracts and any savings through( effiencies ) instead of going to shareholders could be paid back to the taxpayer . also will an independant scotland still be controlled by these clowns in brussels ?
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Surely competitive bidding is the best system, as long as it’s a level playing field – you wouldn’t want Scottish companies banned from export markets, would you?
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how many uk shipyards win oversees contracts ,none !! yet polish/german shipyards build our calmac/lighthouse board ,fisheries vessels .
oh sorry fergusons won the tender to build 2 small ferrys , not exactly the cream .did these oversees yards even bother tendering . lets get britian building again , say no to brussels
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Either it’s not a level playing field, or there’s some other reason behind the near disappearance of shipbuilding from the Clyde.
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Fergusons was only given the order so that they would be unable to build the two new boast for Dunoon! How’s that for a conspiracy theory?
Oh, and Newsroom…… where do you get the September 20th/21st dates for the end of the CalMac contract? It’s September 30th/October 1st 2013.
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why dont the snp ,invest money building a new fleet of ships for our islands ,getting skilled men back into work ,whatever happened to clydebuilt
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Newsroom – If these services are likely to go to a private company, what does this mean for the Dunoon to Gourock service?
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Nothing at all until 2017.
Western Ferries, with the vehicle and passenger service, is a private sector company owning everything to do with its own route. It will be unaffected.
Argyll Ferries has a contract for the passenger ferry service until 2017.
The Scottish Government is formally on the record as satisfied with its performance which is fulfilling all of its contractual obligatins. So there is no possible threat to this contract, which will run its course in the usual way.
In 2017, that contract will be tendered again – unless the Scottish Government decides that usage of the two ferries at Dunoon’s disposal does not justify public sector commitment, since the route is not a lifeline service.
Certainly, if CalMac goes the way of NorthLink, David MacBrayne Limited will be an envelope with nothing in it but Argyll Ferries running a single passenger route.
The other remaining company in the David MacBrayne group is a staffing supply company – which would hardly be viable engaged only in supplying staff for two short run passenger boats.
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Newsroom the term lifeline has no defined meaning, don’t you understand that? Saying a route is or is not a lifeline route means nothing. Point to a definition of the term if you are going to keep using it.
The EU has decided that the passenger element of the Dunoon Gourock route can be subsidised. A financial review is under way to determine if the service can carry vehicles without subsidy. The fact that Western makes a profit using vehicles ferries that carry roughly the same number of passengers and crew as the passenger only vessels should make that a forgone conclusion.
There is a problem that the AFL service contract is inept and so the service meets its contract despite not being fit for purpose. None the less contract can be terminated at any time.
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Ferryman: if you’re struggling to define a ‘lifeline’ ferry route, let me help you. Regardless of what politicians / experts / anoraks or anyone else might say, I’d define it as a route that, if abandoned, would significantly compromise the viability of a community in its present form.
For example, the neglect – let alone abandonment – of the Kilcreggan route would seem to be likely to cause severe hardship to some local people and destroy the scope for enhancing the links between communities on opposite sides of the Clyde, given the far longer route by road to the relatively isolated Rosneath area..
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The Scottish Government and, we understand, the EC use the term in defining which ferry services may be legally subsidised and which may not.
We did not invent the term. It is current and is given serviceability by the authorities who act upon its weight, as they see it.
It is also a justifiable concept with a justifiable name, given the nature of the west coast ferry services.
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The EU does not use the term “lifeline”, the Scottish Government does but does not define it (which gives lots of wriggle room).
Emotionally we can all connect with the the usage Donald Mackay gave in his earlier post. However the practicality is that the Civil Servants with Transport Scotland will make decisions about what is and is not the lifeline aspects of each ferry route. It is a free hand for them to do as they wish.
The EU of course have agreed the Dunoon passenger service can be subsidised, so by your definition it must be lifeline. Cowal would be damaged by the removal of Western Ferries so it is also lifeline by the earlier definition.
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“The fact that Western makes a profit using vehicles ferries that carry roughly the same number of passengers and crew as the passenger only vessels should make that a forgone conclusion.”
Indeed it does. It makes people conclude that Western is an efficiently run operation, and that CalMac/Argyll/Macbrayne [delete as appropriate] is not!
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Nobody seems to be questioning that Western make a significant profit out of users and so by that measure are very efficient.
On the town centre route it shows the Government are idiots for not ensuring suitable vessels were used, i.e. vehicle ferries, and needless restrictions removed.
I don’t care who runs the town centre route as long as it is reliable and provides real competition on fares and timetable.
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Today we have heard straight from the EU that Scotland would have to rejoin the EU if the country became separate from the rest of the UK .
The SNP have been found out lying again . Will they offer the people of Scotland an apology for misleading them ?
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Ife, are you familiar with the phrase ‘off topic’?
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Newsroom (aka soapbox) wrote “TUPE obliges an incomer to take staff on – not to keep them or to keep them in the manner to which they are accustomed.”
Wrong again. Under TUPE the employee’s contract, with all its terms and conditions, transfers across to the new employer. Even the employee’s length of service transfers across. The effect is as if the employee had always been employed by the new company. The only significant exception to this is with regard to pensions.
Obviously employees rights are not protected in perpituity but any employer who effected a transfer then immediately set about changing conditions would find themselves in deep water – apart of course for the very important pensions.
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i believe tupe only lasts for 90 days ,after that well who knows ,maybe thats why northlink staff voted for strike action a few months ago
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Oban,s new SNP councillor Fred Hall seems to give the impression in his Letter in the Oban Times today that Mike Russell is keen to split up the ferry routes.
Was this part of the big Mull meeting if so it seems either our councillor is not up to speed with Salmond,s press release or he was told a different story by Russell.
What with councillor Louise Glen-Lee not even turning up at the constituency or local meetings to explain her reasons for not standing for re-election,Mike MacKenzie in hiding and now Fred Hall slagging of Russell the good old SNP are in some mess.
Poor Roddy will be wondering what he has got himself into.
Cheers Neil.
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its seems the snp have put a three year delay on calmac tendering ,will that be after the next election ? is this another stitch up .
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The last election was Thursday 5 May, 2011. If they are held every 4 years the next will be in 2015. So maybe it is connected. The SNP certainly delayed letting on about the Dunoon Gourock disaster and their broken promise until after the 2011 elections.
Three years from now will take it past the referendum in 2014. Obviously they don’t want people to find out that Transport Scotland’s view of what a “lifeline” service is differs from that of the ferry users until after votes are cast. They cannot risk having the Dunoon debacle reproduced throughout Scotland.
At the moment the Government’s track record is that they broke promises, delayed to conceal the fact, then failed miserably to implement and run a simple passenger ferry service. How can they be trusted to run a country?
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Ferryman The next Scottish Parliament elections are at the moment set for May 2116 a 5 year term….the Council elections are set for May 2117 again a 5 year term…..All because the Coalition have set a fixed 5 year term in office from 2010 to 2015.
The only way this could get back to the SP and Council 4 year terms in office would be if the Coalition breaks up by the end of 2013 or the start of 2014….Indeed I suspect that the Scottish referendum date of Autumn 2014 would quickly be changed by Alex Salmond if a General election was to be held in May 2014.
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How depressing ,5 years of Salmond and McCuish & co
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“How depressing,5 years of Salmond and McCuish & co”
you could be right, but Blair, Conlib, illegal wars, torture sanctioned by my own government, past administrations at Argyll and Bute council, I see the sunshine trying to break through those dark dark clouds, Thatcher, police corruption and lies, yes the sun is beginning to shine, for how long,I do not know, its a start, Spring may be on its way, time will tell. The glass is half full.
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Well, I’m just unhappy if all this means the demise of Calmac – all that proud tradition thrown away to appease the god of private enterprise….
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