Action on Tonnage Tax / Parliamentary report

R MT HAS submitted amendments to the tonnage tax concession as part of the union’s campaign for a training and employment link for seafaring ratings. Since the introduction of the tonnage tax, some £100 million in taxpayers’ money has been handed out to shipowners, but there is no automatic link to ratings’ training and jobs. In two decades the number of UK ratings has dwindled from 30,000 to 10,000. The government is expected to make an announcement on its review of the tonnage tax before the end of the year. Therefore, the union has met ministers to outline the case for a training and employment link to be part of the commitment made by shipping companies who elect to become part of the tonnage tax regime. These arguments have also been taken up by the RMT Parliamentary Group. This has proved to be very successful and so far a total of 165 Labour and Liberal Democrat MPs have signed Early Day Motion 880 demanding action. Debate RMT parliamentary convenor John McDonnell MP led a House of Commons adjournment debate earlier this month urging the government to link qualification for the tonnage-tax concession with jobs and training. John said that it must be recognised that this country is an island and should not become dependent on an industry that is controlled from other states. “We must plan for the maintenance and development of a seafaring sector in this country. “We can no longer stand by and watch the whole industry decline, our experience relates very much to what is happening in the coal mining industry and the destruction of whole coal mining communities,” he said. Proposals As a result of the meeting with Shipping Minister David Jamieson the union has also tabled proposals on the subject. RMT proposals seek to change requirements that concentrate on training only, into two separate commitments, one for training and one for employment. Currently, the commitment for ratings is weak, with companies only obliged to review the feasibility of employing or training more UK ratings. Companies have to engage one cadet for every fifteen officers employed on board, although in certain circumstances they can avoid this requirement by making PILOT payments (Payment in Lieu of Training) to the Maritime Training Trust. Training RMT is seeking to insert into the scheme a training and employment link for UK ratings. RMT have not made comments on any proposed officers commitment as this is for NUMAST to stipulate. Action on Tonnage Tax RMT demands amendments to the Tonnage Tax with a training and employment link for seafaring ratings. RMT lobby US embassy RMT made representations to the US embassy on World Maritime Day to highlight the problems faced by seafarers as a result of strict new security measures. RMT president Tony Donaghey and general secretary Bob Crow handed in a letter to Jean Bonilla, minister for labour and social affairs at the embassy, to express concern about the way new rules are curtailing seafarers’ rights to shore leave. Bob Crow pointed out that the restriction of shore leave was a world-wide problem, most acutely in the US, where armed guards are used to prevent foreign seafarers leaving their ships. Under a new International Labour Organisation convention, crew members will be expected to carry identity documents which include a bar-coded finger-print, and that seafarers holding the new ID should be able to take shore leave without first applying for a visa. The letter also pointed out that the International Maritime Organisation has recently introduced a code giving seafarers a major new security role, and that imposing unreasonable restric- tions on shore-leave is counter-productive. “Shore leave is vital to the health and well-being of the world’s 1.25 million seafarers, and we hope that all governments will ratify and implement the provisions of ILO Convention 185 as soon as possible.” said Bob. 8 9 RMT parliamentary column I T IS a year since South Eastern Trains (SET) took over the franchise from Connex in November 2003. Throughout this time RMT has been campaigning with MPs to ensure that the government keep the franchise in public hands. The franchise became the first since Tory privatisation to be run under what is effectively public control. This was achieved through what was almost a management buyout. Connex and their executives disappeared from the scene and the people who had been managing the service under them took over. This not only led to a smooth transition, but it also allowed the new managers to immediately start the task of improving the service. SET has just published its Public Performance Measure on punctuality for the period from April 2004 through to the end of July. These figures show that they are performing consistently better than in the same period in the previous year, with the exception of May where the figures were very similar. In addition, their customer complaints for November 2003 to July 2004 are 50 per cent down on the same period for 2002 to 2003. As a regular user of SET, I can vouch for the improvement in the service. There are still the odd days when passengers are left fuming on the platform because a train is running more than the odd minute behind schedule, but this is nowhere near the levels of the Connex era. So why have SET been able to deliver these improvements in such a relatively short period of time, and dare I ask at the risk of being accused of being anti- European, how did they achieve it without being French? This may be a bit facetious, but I can recall being told at the time Connex won the franchise that the French were going to embarrass us because they were experts at running railways. What the Connex experience has shown us is that not even French expertise could make our privatised railways work. The answer to the question is that SET managers no longer have to serve two masters. They can direct all their efforts and resources into running an efficient railway. Under privatisation, the bottom line was the shareholders of the train operating company and not the long-suffering passenger. It is the same people managing the system today that were running it under Connex, yet they have achieved considerable improvements. The only ingredient missing is the demands of the private sector that drain resources away from the service. SET’s success demonstrates, for anyone who wants to learn the lesson, that value for money can be achieved through directly-run publicly-owned railways. The worry is that we are not opening our eyes to this fact. There have been worrying signals recently that the government intends to re- privatise South Eastern Trains, despite over 100 labour MPs supporting my parlia- mentary motion to retain this service in the public sector. I and my parliamentary colleagues will be seeking a meeting with the Minister on this vital question. SET has achieved too much in the way of improving services for the government to ignore the compelling arguments for this service to be retained in the public sector. W HEN the SRA appeared before the Transport Select Committee, they made it clear that they would privatise the service regardless of the performance of SET. The committee stressed the need for a proper assessment of the public sector option to provide a yardstick against which to measure the value for money performance of the publicly managed franchise. To date, all of the data points to the fact that it represents good value for money. The public will not thank those responsible if it returns to private hands and we see a return to the poor performances of the recent past. I regularly have to remind people that my part of London is not served by the London Underground. This means that my constituents have a heavy reliance on the south east train services. We can not afford to allow dogma to get in the way of an efficient service. We must base our decisions on the facts and they state clearly that the franchise should stay where it is. G Clive Efford is the Labour MP for Eltham and a member of the Transport Select Committee Keep SET in public hands However, the union has stated that it supports the introduction of an employment link for officers. Under the RMT proposals companies are also obliged to commit to the training of UK ratings on the basis of a ratio of at least one in fifteen ratings, this can be through the training of deck, engine or catering ratings. Employment The training commitment is then followed with an employment commitment which is calculated on the same basis as the training commitment, i.e. one in fifteen. Companies are required to maintain the training commitment for at least the first three years of entry into the scheme, and then to carry on training as and when required to ensure compliance with the minimum employment requirement. The proposals do not go as far as RMT would wish. However, at the last available count there were 755 ships in the tonnage tax scheme so if RMT proposals were adopted they really would give a significant boost to UK seafaring ratings employment and training opportunities. Non-compliance The union has also taken the opportunity to review other aspects of the scheme. RMT strongly recommended that PILOT payments no longer be allowed and that companies have to train in all circum- stances. In addition, the union has stated that the penalties for non-compliance must be strengthened so that a penalty is introduced earlier, and expulsion should be enforced following a second year of failure to uphold the tonnage tax minimum training and employment obligation. The recent announcement by P&O Ferries of hundreds of dismissals of UK ratings further supports the case for a training and employment link and the union will continue to make representations on this matter. RMT parliamentary convenor John McDonnell MP led the debate on Tonnage tax