The Canadian Merchant Service Guild has filed a grievance and is calling on Marine Atlantic to stop the use of outside contractors to take the place of licensed officers on Martine Atlantic’s ferries.

The Guild says Marine Atlantic has been staffing, and in some cases overstaffing, some vacant positions with officers from a contracting agency, instead of filling them with its own employees who are Guild members.

The Guild says the collective agreement has contracting out language but claims it was not followed.

In a release, the Guild says Marine Atlantic has claimed that it is taking the action because of staffing shortages, but the employer has been warned for months that its wages and working conditions are not competitive, leading to possible trouble with recruitment and retention. The Guild claims that suggestions made to address staffing shortages were ignored.