Cross Skippers dual role Port Authority

Employees of the Rotterdam Port Authority can no longer work on the sidelines of the water taxi in Rotterdam from December of next year. District Judge Wim Wetzels Ruled Monday That Auxiliary Activities May Look Like a Conflict of Interest

The Trial Was Initiated by a Group of About 20 Employees of the Administration port, including 25 to 25 years of water taxi. They demanded that they be allowed to keep their jobs part-time; the transport of the customers on Nieuwe Maas is their "soul and their happiness", according to the judgment of the court. The skippers work as freelancers for the Rotterdam Watertaxi, via the Schippers Central Rotterdam, and earn between 600 and 700 € per year. In 2008, the port authority gave written permission to work on the water taxi

. Learn more about the lawsuit: The supervisor and the taxist can not be

. The Port Authority, owned 70% by the municipality of Rotterdam and 30 Dutch, is partly responsible for water safety. In March 2017, the port management authorities informed the captains that they were to cease their ancillary activities. According to the port authority, you can no longer be supervisor for the moment and perform paid work on the same water. For their colleagues in the port authority, it would be difficult to talk about the behavior of taxi captains to navigation, added the port authority.

In recent years, the Meuse has been busy and more control and surveillance is needed. The pool of about one hundred taxi skippers annually makes half a million trips.

Transition Period

According to the High Court, the Port Authority rightly asserts that such a dual role is "unacceptable" and "harms its credibility". But as skippers have been sailing the water taxi for a long time and they "enjoy substantial income", the judge believes that a transitional period of one year is reasonable.

The behavior of boat-boat skippers became a topic of discussion last summer after the collision between a water taxi and a tanker. motorsloop on the Nieuwe Maas. Twelve people had water, three of which had broken bones. The driver of the water taxi concerned did not work at the port authority, confirmed the harbor captain René de Vries during the session

. Also read the interview with the owners of the water taxis, in which they also evoke the recent accident: 'We were allowed to sail, it was a lot & # 39;

Water taxi employees are wondering if they can appeal, says their lawyer, Bob Gasseling. The port authority is waiting for the reaction of the captains, according to a spokesman.