Customer Update - Letter in response to The Herald article, 13 July 2023

The article published on the Herald website on 13 July entitled "Ferry chaos firm CalMac gives up to £400k in bonuses to staff" is entirely misleading and contains statements which are completely false.

The truth is that after a particularly difficult year when our frontline staff have worked very hard in the face of extreme pressures, a decision was taken to make a one-off payment to them of 1.5% of salary as a thank you for their efforts on behalf of our customers and the communities we serve.

The Herald article by Mr Williams, states that Executives (company directors) will be receiving a bonus, when the facts are that no director is receiving the payment. Directors will receive zero as this payment is for our staff and managers and not for Executive-Directors.

The Herald then goes on to single out our Chief Executive, stating that Mr Drummond will get £3000. This is false, as Mr Drummond like all the directors will receive nothing.

Although the article is correct in stating that CalMac was approached for comment, it omits to point out that we responded saying we would provide a full response to the claims being made by Mr Williams. Unfortunately, rather than wait till we had provided a full response, the Herald chose to publish a story that contained several glaring inaccuracies.

While we have had cause to complain to the Herald about the publication of stories which we believe contained misleading information about CalMac over the last two years, we have always done so privately to them. However, we feel that the publication of a story that is both misleading and contains inaccurate information requires us to make a public statement to correct the record.

Yours,

Robert Morrison
Operations Director
CalMac Ferries