Ferry traffic company Tallink Grupp has informed trade unions and unemployment insurance institutions in Estonia and Latvia about plans for collective lay-offs. These plans provide for laying off 400 workers from its subsidiary Hansaliin in Estonia and 100 workers from Tallink Latvia.
During negotiations it is planned to clarify the exact number of workers to be laid off. The actual number may be lower than the initially announced, Tallink reports. In Estonia collective lay offs will mainly affect ship crew, whereas in Latvia both service and technical personnel will be laid off.
Workers will be laid off as the company continues optimising ship crews in both countries in accordance with long-term lease contracts signed for ships Isabelle [which currently serves as accommodation for a thousand war refugees from Ukraine – BNN] and Star.
These ferries will be leased out without crew for several years. Many other ships owned by the company are already leased out this way,
this is why Tallink will not be able to provide employees with appropriate workload in the near future.
Tallink Grupp’s chairman of the board Pāvo Negene reports the company is trying to offer crew members work on leased ships or other ferries owned by the company. However, the leasing of ships abroad means not everyone has the option to use such a work offer.
Last year Tallink Grupp performed a similar process at its Swedish subsidiary Tallink Silja, because regular trips between Turku and Stockholm were discontinued using Galaxy ferry, which is currently leased out.
Collective lay-offs started this week. The process is scheduled to conclude by autumn. Tallink Grupp has also commenced a smaller-scale lay off plan in its company Laevateenindus.
Tallink Grupp provides ferry services in the Baltic Sea under the trademarks Tallink and Silja Lina. The company also has three hotels in Tallinn and one in Riga. Tallink Grupp’s biggest shareholder is Estonian investment company Infortar, which owns 40% of this company’s shares.
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