News

Around 200 jobs at the Port of Dover are being transferred to the private sector.

Dover Harbour Board, responsible for the UK’s busiest ferry port, is to outsource a third of the 600 jobs in 2009.

The decision will involve quayside services such as berthing gangs and unloading.

The news brought an immediate response from Dover MP Gwyn Prosser who, after talks with the port authority’s chief executive Bob Goldfield described the Board’s decision as a “betrayal of its loyal workforce” and accused it of jeopardising safety.

Mr Prosser, a former officer on Dover’s cross Channel ferries said: “I’m very much aware of the important role played by the berthing gangs, the tug drivers and the security officers.

“The hiving-off of these services to private operators will impact negatively on employee’s conditions of service and on safety.”

Mr Prosser said: “It beggars belief" that that their loyalty should be rewarded with this unilateral Board decision to terminate their employment.

But Mr Goldfield stressed the need for such action in the light of requirements of the port by the future second ferry terminal development and insists that despite one third of the workforce being affected, job cuts will be minimal and transfers will instead take place of the 190 staff.