PARLIAMENTARY COLUMN

RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: september 2012 :: RMTnews 9 Parliamentary column RMT has done us all a favour by consistently exposing the SNP government’s plans to privatise Clyde and Hebrides ferry services (CHFS). Although SNP leader Alex Salmond’s administration has not yet deigned to tell anyone their policy on the imminent tender for the 2013-19 CHFS contract, it is clear that the threat of unbundling profitable CHFS routes for sale to the private sector is very real. RMT members working for CalMac don’t need me to tell them how unsettling it is to be faced with the prospect of your job and workplace being privatised but it is high time that the SNP government came clean on its intentions for west coast ferry routes. Their long awaited Ferry Review has suffered delay after delay, different fares structures are causing resentment and confusion in island communities and now the privatisation of CalMac subsidiary NorthLink - hot on the heels of the Gourock- Dunoon fiasco - adds to the genuine fear among CalMac ferry staff and management that the Government is intent on privatising CalMac's remaining routes. Neither is the SNP government’s claim only to be concerned with 'value for money' credible when you compare the 70 per cent subsidy (£243m) they will pay Serco to run the same ferry services to the Northern Isles which cost the taxpayer £190m to provide for the previous 6 year contract. In addition, I understand that although the CalMac bid for the NorthLink contact was again the cheapest it was ruled out on a spurious technicality. I also understand that when CalMac sought permission from their political bosses to appeal this decision they were directed not to by Scottish Government Ministers – a blatantly partial political decision. From this performance it is hard to avoid the conclusion that the SNP government’s ferries policy could destroy CalMac's hard won reputation for delivering good quality and reliable lifeline ferry services to Scotland's west coast island communities. And, of course, if the worst fears of CalMac workers, the communities they serve and the trade unions are realised, the consequences for the UK maritime industry will be dire. At present, there simply aren’t enough seafarers coming into the industry in order to avoid a skills shortage, with the shipping industry reneging on previous commitments to provide training places for domestic seafarers. One of the few beacons of light during this dark period for UK seafarers has been CalMac. Since 2002, the company has provided or sponsored training for over 400 officers and ratings – a big contribution to the industry’s skills base from a relatively small shipping company which resounds across the British Isles. The communities and families affected cannot afford to lose this excellent public transport operator and Scotland certainly cannot afford to sell off a major asset, purely to satisfy the short term political needs of a nationalist administration. Whilst we wait for the Scottish government to announce their final ferries plan, I hope that CalMac workers, the Board and management, not to mention trade unionists and the public, will let Ministers know the strength of feeling in favour of keeping CalMac on the Clyde and Hebrides ferry routes. Richard Baker MSP, Shadow Labour Infrastructure and Transport Minister and member of RMT Scottish Parliamentary Group SNP HANDS OFF CALMAC FERRIES A gency workers employed by Trainpeople.co.uk engaged on Grand Central Railways and London Underground’s Bakerloo Line contracts are not protected by EU Agency Worker Regulations (AWR) as the company is using the so-called Swedish derogation. As a result workers have not been paid for the second month running as this legal loophole, developed by employers to get round ‘soft’ EU legislation, which prevents workers from getting the same pay as permanent employees. The AWR was introduced after much horse-trading last year and employers using temporary workers turned to recruitment agencies and umbrella company partners to provide a ‘flat-pack solution’ to get round the legislation. The ‘Swedish derogation model’ is also known as ‘pay between assignments’ and is derived from an opt-out clause Sweden negotiated when the Agency Workers’ Directive was agreed at EU level. Under this model if an agency worker is made into a permanent employee of the recruitment agency, they do not gain the same basic rights of employees of the organisation where they are placed after 12 weeks work. Therefore agency staff do not have the right to equivalent pay, holidays and working hours as others doing the same job. Ironically Norwegian trade unionists held a general strike earlier this year to stop the implementation of the Agency Workers’ Directive as its main impact is to make agency work the norm, undermining the permanent contracts that currently exist in Norway. RMT general secretary Bob Crow said that the union was looking at the legal implications of the AWR and the Swedish Derogation. “RMT believes that all transport workers should have secure contracts of employment, directly employed by an integrated, publically owned public transport system,” he said. SWEDISH DEROGATION SCANDAL