SHIPPING NEWS

RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: february 2013 :: RMTnews 9 The government’s imposition of a three year pay freeze has hugely affected Royal Fleet Auxiliary members and, like everyone else, they are feeling the pinch. However RMT has secured a bonus payment which is non-consolidated and non-pensionable, which should see for example the cook and the AB receiving about £800 pounds and very similar for all other ratings. This is now going out to a referendum of the members and we await the result. Struggling P&O has proposed a pay freeze and members feel that this is better than Job losses and pay cuts, the finer details of this have not been finalised with the union and we are waiting, as are other unions, to meet the company. On the Irish Sea, harmonisation has been agreed by members by a narrow majority and everyone will now be getting four weeks leave which should create more jobs, still more work to be done. Maersk has now moved all their supply vessels to the Danish second registry, this has not cost us any jobs as such but it entitles our members to certain social security, leave and pension benefits, under Danish legislation. I am in dialogue with the Danish unions over this and they are being very cooperative. Whilst members will now come under the Danish CBA, their pay and conditions will be negotiated by the Danish unions who have assured me RMT will get a seat at the table to represent members and they should suffer no detriment. At Serco/Northlink members took strike action in December in opposition to the company seeking 36 volunteers for redundancy and in the process the company chose to ignore the machinery. After getting the company to agree to get back around the table the members agreed to postpone the dispute to allow further discussions which are still ongoing. On Orkney Ferries members have voted to impose an overtime ban after voting no to industrial action. In the absence of the company making them a decent pay offer the ban comes into full effect on February 13 and coincides with similar action by Unite and Nautilus. After defeating the totally unsafe, unacceptable and unworkable, rosters proposed by Stena Irish Sea earlier last year which would have seen members moving from week on/ week off. The company has now come along with proposal to reduce passenger certificate (PC) levels, which ultimately mean a reduction in crew. They propose to look for three redundancies in the catering off each watch on a voluntary basis. But the company has still to convince the workforce over how they can run the services to the present standards and it looks like we might be heading to a ballot for industrial action. Bibby/Foreland which operate six strategic ro/ro ferries indicated last September that two of the six ships which operate commercially are up for sale. To date there are no interested buyers and we shall find out at upcoming meetings, which I will be attending, what the state of play is and we shall remain vigilant at all times. National secretary Steve Todd Occupational Health and Safety or Stage III. Around 68 per cent of safety reps are inspecting the workplace at or above the minimum rate of four times a year with a quarter of Reps reporting they inspect the workplace in excess of five times a year. Of concern though is the 10 safety reps of reps who report not carrying out workplace inspections. ENFORCING AUTHORITY ACTIVITY Because of the safety critical activity in most of the workplaces where RMT has its members, the level of enforcing authority visits is much higher than the one visit in every 34 years that is the experience of most workers in the UK. While nearly 50 safety reps have never seen an inspector from ORR, MCA or HSE, 27 safety reps of respondents reported they’d been visited by an inspector in the last year, 13 safety reps in the last three years and 11 safety reps had been visited over three years ago. However only 36 safety reps of our Reps had been aware of the visit in advance and in only 25 per cent of cases did the inspector make an attempt to speak to the Safety Rep. There is considerable room for improvement in these figures. Not only do management need to view our safety reps in a new light but so do the enforcing authorities. CONCLUSIONS RMT reps are, in growing numbers, well trained by the union and the TUC. They are doing a very good job of protecting the health, safety and welfare of RMT members under difficult conditions in high risk industries. RMT provides much needed support for these reps but there are improvements we can and must make to ensure they are even more supported in their workplaces. Full survey results will be made available on the RMT website in the health and safety section shortly. SHIPPING NEWS