– I don’t think they have taken a proper clearance – VG

– I have worked at Hurtigruten for 15 years and have put a lot of my soul into making the transportation company the best it can be. But this past summer, I felt that business considerations came before the safety of the crew.

Here’s what Kristian Sæterhaug, who had his last day on the job at Hurtigruten, says last week. In January, he quit his job as a front desk manager at MS “Roald Amundsen.”

Days after his last day at the company, he wrote a post on Facebook about why he quit.

“What happened at MS Roald Amundsen last summer was criminal and punishable!” write in the mail.

He also writes:

“The truth is that it was irrelevant to me to remain an employee of an employer with such miserable ethical adherence to its guidelines as Hurtigruten.”

He refers to the management of the outbreak in MS “Roald Amundsen” in late July last year. A total of 29 passengers and 42 employees tested positive for the coronavirus after the ship’s voyages between July 17 and July 31.

69 municipalities across the country were affected by the outbreak.

Concerned

Before this, he had the employer of several foreign employees.

– There was no sensible quarantine of the crew that arrived on July 7. They went to work with us. They were not allowed to leave the ship, but they worked with us. And we could leave the ship as we wanted, he explains to VG.

– For Hurtigruten it was very important that we start sailing. The possible infection was not managed safely, it continues.

He believes that management should have handled the outbreak differently and although there was an infection on board much earlier.

– I realized something was wrong the night before. They asked me to help the crew who were cleaning the room of someone they thought was sick. When I, with so little knowledge of what was really happening, I do not understand how the managers did not understand it before, he says.

In September, the Norwegian Maritime Directorate published a report concluding that emergency preparedness did not work, that routines for reporting infections on board were not followed. They also showed that several days passed before shipping management was informed.

It also concluded that a risk assessment was not conducted before the trip in July, despite the fact that there was an ongoing pandemic when the cruise began and that there was a reduction in personnel in the management of the shipping company, the report notes.

Ask for an agreement

Sæterhaug believes that it is very little that only one leader had to leave after the outbreak. We are talking about the Executive Vice President of Marine Operations, Bent Martini, who left in October of last year.

– I don’t think they have come to an adequate agreement with what happened, he says.

He speaks of many messages of support, also from his former colleagues.

– I hope this can inspire a change in the Hurtigruten culture. I don’t think there is room for that as it is now, he says.

– Safe, spacious and open culture

Communications consultant Tarjei Kramviken thinks it’s sad to read how his former colleague describes the culture in Hurtigruten.

– Although what our former colleague writes about the MS outbreak “Roald Amundsen” has already been fully addressed in the external investigation, Hurtigruten takes all our employees’ comments and concerns, including this one, seriously, he writes in an email to VG. .

Also, he says they have worked with culture at Hurtigruten for several years.

– Hurtigruten wants a safe, spacious and open culture, where you should also feel safe to report on all kinds of conditions. We have clear procedures and systems in place to facilitate precisely this, also in the sense that employees can report anonymously.

– Management works closely with employees, shop stewards and employee representatives to ensure that we improve every day. This work will also be a high priority in the future so that Hurtigruten can be a safe and good workplace for our many employees, he continues.