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Friday,Mar 19,2010
Lawrie Campbell claims the fact that everyone in its crew network is a V.Ships employee means the company is "one step ahead" at a time of increasing regulation.
Various managers in its crewing offices are former senior V.Ships seagoing officers and the immediate point of contact when people step through the door. It is "fundamental" for newcomers to recognise a company's safety standards and "how quality is managed".
Campbell, chief executive of Glasgow-based V.Ships Manpower Services, was recently in India where there were plenty of people seeking a job at sea, both new recruits and others returning after a period in, for example, the oil-and-gas industry.
He says the company has no problem filling its cadet programme in its core recruitment countries, such as the Philippines, India, Ukraine and Russia, although a critical issue can be securing sponsorship of cadet berths.
After the immense crewing pressures of recent years, the situation regarding availability and wages eased slightly in 2009, says Campbell.
At the beginning of that year, V.Ships made it clear it would not increase wages further and communicated the message to its crew. "We knew going into vessel budgets with owners in 2009 that many of our clients were under pressure and this was not a time, if you were looking for secure employment with V.Ships, to join a vessel with a 10% or 20% wage increase demand," said Campbell. "It took three or four months to sink in." But, he says, V.Ships is of a size that it can offer seafarers a lifetime career, a fact that company president Roberto Giorgi has been pushing in his position as head of trade association InterManager.
"Many of our crew managers, a large whack of our technical superintendents and even some of our managing directors sailed with V.Ships," said Campbell.
Malcolm Willingale
Group Communications
V.Group
Tel: +44 207 489 0088
E-mail: Malcolm Willingale