SEAGOING OFFICERS FACE REDUNDANCY

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33929, 23 August 1975, Page 22

SEAGOING OFFICERS FACE REDUNDANCY

'By

JOHN LESLIE)

Becoming redundant is not a pleasant experience. But it never was. In reply to 1.5., of Auckland, and others, here are a few suggestions which may give some help. Nothing is ever as bad as it seems; but nevertheless some officers of the Union Steam Ship Company have recently received courteous letters from their employer suggesting voluntary redundancy. One recipient, who is married with two children and another one due. spoke of this to the writer at Lyttelton recently. He suggested that he might have to go to the Far Last, where Merchant Service officers have gone in their time . But when one lives in New Zealand, it is not quite the same. The British newspaper •■Telegraph,” published by; the Merchant Service and' Airline Officers’ Association; advertises plenty of billets with British shipping lines in tankers, bulk carriers? cargo vessels, and so on. The mighty P and O had a particularly lavish coloured advertisement in one issue. But putting aside tempting; overseas offers, some navigating officers, as the Union Company’s fleet shrinks to a skeleton of its once great self, engages in more chartering. and gradually merges closer with the Australian sphere, may seek new fields ashore. It is sometimes very hard — but it can be done. A seafarer does not normally sacrifice the sea be-; cause of dislike of it, but for home life — more home life, or total home life. The; writer came ashore. 25 years ago for this reason. He found it a lonely step, with-, out a job, totally in- , experienced in the harsh? commercial reality of shore' life. 1 But there were models. An ■ acquaintance, a former. Union Company officer the| writer consulted, was help- ; ful. He was then sitting in a j small room containing a few invoices and a lot of cardboard boxing. He had taken the hard step ashore. He was sympathetic, and opti-i mistic. He did rather well; ultimately. Probably the reader has heard of him: Sir James Doig. formerly chair-' man of the great U.E.B. enterprise But then he was just Jimmy Doig, a contemporary. Again, the writer bumped into a former shipmate who had been an able seaman He, too. was encouraging; Today, he is a prominent. South Island hotel propriety