Good morning, afternoon, evening
A slightly more sombre weekly update I’m afraid.
On Wednesday we communicated to everyone in the UK office that on May 11 we will be entering into a formal collective consultation regarding proposed changes to the structure of our organisation and to our ways of working. The fact that we currently have no revenues and can’t predict when we will be sailing again means we need to determine what is essential to the business in order to continue to manage our costs. I’ve said on our Zoom calls that I’m optimistic in the long term and this truly remains the case, but we need to make sure we can survive in the shorter term and that’s what this is about.
Our Cunard Employee Experience Group has gathered a lot of feedback, questions and comments in the 24 hours since the announcement – thank you team. I will seek to address as much as I can tomorrow in our weekly call. In addition, there will be an opportunity to ask further questions.
On a cheerier note, 670 of our Filipino crew from QM2 were successfully flown back to the Philippines at the end of last week where they are now in hotels for 14 days in quarantine before being allowed to head home to their families. QE remains at anchor just off Manila and Filipino crew will be allowed home around 5/6 May. Progress is being made in our planning for QV’s team members, which, as I’ve previously mentioned, is a little more complex given we’ve had some illness onboard.
Now I don’t want to make light of anything that’s going on right now, but neither do I want to rob someone of the opportunity to win a bottle of wine … so to this week’s photo – who is the lady on the right, where was it and why were we there? Anyone directly involved is excluded from entering!
I look forward to seeing all in the UK and German shore-side teams tomorrow on our weekly call.
Around the world, there appear to be increasing murmurings about relaxing lock-down measures and progressing with a vaccine … fingers madly crossed.
To everyone, please keep looking after yourselves and a very big thank you for your resilience in these uncertain times.
Simon Palethorpe
President, Cunard