After a period of financial hardship on the HH route, Forsea is tightening its belt. 70 employees are to be laid off in a savings package that also means the company will close one of its ferry restaurants.
The waves are going high at Forsea, which has struggled with profitability on the HH route during the corona pandemic, which has paralyzed tourism across the Sound. As a result of the strained situation, Forsea now wants to get rid of 70 employees out of the company's total of approximately 500 permanent employees.
”"The coronavirus pandemic has hit our traffic volume hard, which quickly decreased by 80 percent. The situation has certainly improved during the summer as both Danish and Swedish society has begun to open up again. But volumes are still 40 percent less than usual, and that is far from satisfactory for us," says Kristian Durhuus, CEO of Forsea.
Earlier this spring A number of employees at the ferry company were laid off part-time. Now that they are about to return to full-time work, they will instead be faced with the knowledge that several colleagues will lose their jobs.
”"It is a very sad decision, but necessary. We must review our capacity needs and staffing needs going forward. It is unsustainable to continue operating with our entire current workforce when we have such a significantly reduced traffic volume," says Kristian Durhuus.
Affected unions have been called to negotiations at the end of August.
”"Over the years, the company has made successive staff reductions, and we do not see how they will manage to maintain the current service on board with even fewer employees. I really hope that they do not reduce the service level, it would definitely not be beneficial for the company," says Mikael Lindmark, ombudsman at Seko seafarers who is responsible for approximately 120 on-board employees within the Swedish operations of Forsea.
However, the savings package means that the company will also close one of its restaurants, specifically the LAT56 bistro bar on the ferry Hamlet.
”"That restaurant wasn't very profitable before corona and especially not now during the pandemic," says Kristian Durhuus, who believes that the company is focusing all its efforts on trying to maintain the current frequency of trips on the HH route:
”"We will continue to sail every 20 minutes, according to the ferry schedule that came into effect when Denmark opened its border with Sweden."”
Source: di.se
