Norwegian ropax owner Color Line said it needs to lay off 300 full-time workers after suffering losses during lockdown.
The company is launching a "comprehensive and lasting cost-cutting programme" to knock NOK 250m ($28m) off its costs from 2021, its parent Color Group said on Friday.
The move is being made "for increased profitability, and efficiency, following many years of investments in digitalisation and new technology/logistics systems, combined with increased centralisation", the group added.
The redundancies will involve both seafarers and office staff.
The restructuring will cost about NOK 50m.
'Challenging situation'
Color Line said it was taking the action due to the "challenging situation in connection with Covid-19", which caused its ships to be idled earlier this year.
The company plans to use as many voluntary schemes as it can in terms of redundancies, Color Line chief executive Trond Kleivdal said.
"Now we have started a process and we are in good dialogue with the employees. This has been carefully analysed and assessed over a long period of time because we see that we need to improve the result," he added.
Color Line has 1,700 people working at sea and 500 on land.
The company's union chief shop steward Erina Bryn Kjaer told TradeWinds' sister newspaper Dagens Naeringsliv: "It's sad news. It is incredibly tough for the employees to receive this message today."
She said staff got a text message and an email about the cuts on Friday.
Color Group suffered a sizeable loss in the first half this year due to extensive cancellations from the coronavirus pandemic.
The pre-tax loss amounted to NOK 756m, against a NOK 108m loss in the first half of 2019.
Operating revenue fell to NOK 1.12bn, from NOK 2.28bn in the same period of last year.
The group has a fleet of seven ferries and operates four international lines connecting Norway, Germany, Denmark and Sweden.
When coronavirus hit in March, the company started extensive cost cuts and cancelled all passenger traffic.
