Cancelled sailings, in large part due to available crew, created extra travel headaches for travellers on board BC Ferries this past spring. (Alex Rawnsley/NanaimoNewsNOW)

By NanaimoNewsNOW Staff

cancelled sailings

‘Ships were running off of overtime:’ fatigue eyed as potential reason for crew shortages at BC Ferries

Aug 30, 2023 | 1:04 PM

NANAIMO — Crew shortages and overarching fatigue among the BC Ferries workforce is being eyed as a potential reason behind a slew of cancelled sailings over the last year.

A report tabled at the BC Ferries AGM on Thursday, Aug. 24 showed roughly 40 per cent of the sailings cancelled between April 1 and June 30, 2023, were a result of a shortage of available crew.

BC Ferries saw 665 cancelled sailings over the three-month period for a variety of reasons, up from 487 during the same time last year.

“While cancelling trips in response to weather conditions or vessel mechanical issues is not unusual, we have experienced a higher number of trips cancelled due to our inability to secure required crew,” the report read.

BC Ferries said a “shortage of skilled workers” and “higher levels of illness” were behind the numbers.

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The number of cancelled sailings represented roughly 1.4 per cent of the total schedule with crewing responsible for 0.6 per cent.

Crew-related cancellations have exponentially increased over recent years.

Twenty-five were recorded in the 2020 fiscal year, 522 in 2021 and around 1,100 between April 2022 and March 2023.

But “levels of illness” is an inadequate descriptor for the BC Ferry and Marine Workers Union.

President of the union’s ship’s officers component Dan Kimmerly said this situation of crew shortages and cancelled sailings is a result which has been a long time coming.

He said there’s been a lack of programs to allow for internal promotions, as well as incentives for people to progress their careers with BC Ferries.

It means “ships were running off of overtime” with qualified crew being pushed harder and harder.

“That’s not sustainable but I think what we’re seeing now is people getting burnt out and they’re not able to continue to do the amount of overtime they were doing before. That’s showing up in absenteeism in the company’s report as well.”

He said data from BC Ferries showed a direct correlation between non-scheduled overtime and absenteeism, data he would expect to see from burnt-out workers.

Kimmerly added the situation is beginning to improve and remains optimistic the trend will continue.

“There’s still a lot of people that want to move up and progress their careers, the ones that are still here. There’s not enough resources currently to be able to make everybody happy that way and hopefully we can get enough resources so that the ships stop having all these cancellations going forward.”

There is a “high percentage” of people close to retirement, according to Kimmerly, which means the company only has a few years to find a solution.

He and the union are calling for a “significant increase” in training and worker development.

Kimmerly also said the wage structure needs to better keep pace with other sectors with ferry workers earning anywhere between 18 to 40 per cent below comparable positions at other companies or in different industries.

“These positions that…used to be excellent jobs that everybody wanted to get people are finding there’s not a guaranteed 100 per cent annual hours that people are going to go to over industries or other jobs. We’re hopeful we can see a change in that.”

Between April 1 and June 30, 2023, BC Ferries saw a three per cent increase in vehicle traffic and a seven per cent increase in passenger traffic compared to the same time in 2022.

Just over 80 per cent of all sailings left on time, defined as within 10 minutes of the scheduled departure time.

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