FIGHTING FOR SHIPPING JOBS

RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: february 2014 :: RMTnews 14 R MT Parliamentary group chair Hayes and Harlington Labour MP John McDonnell raised the lack of action on implementing a national minimum wage in the maritime sector in a recent House of Commons debate. He said that a working party established under the last government between RMT, Nautilus and government departments had produced a redefinition of national minimum wage qualifications for seafarers based on the individual’s connection with the country but it is not being enforced. “The most notable exception that we found involved the lifeline passenger freight ferry routes from Portsmouth, Poole and Weymouth to the Channel Islands operated by Condor Ferries, which employs seafarers from outside the European economic area who are paid £2.35 an hour. “Despite frequent protests, the HMRC enforcement team has taken no action, and is not enforcing the government’s own policy,” he said. RMT’s Parliamentary group of MPs also secured a meeting with the Shipping Minister Stephen Hammond to discuss this lack of application of the government’s own rules on the payment the national minimum wage to seafarers working on ships between UK ports. The group also raised the issue of the Tonnage Tax and ratings training. The Chamber of Shipping had met separately with the minister to discuss the proposed reform of the Tonnage Tax training commitment in favour of training new ratings. Stephen Hammond asked that RMT consider submitting a joint proposal with the Chamber for increasing UK ratings training from the Tonnage Tax. The union held a meeting with the Chamber and Bob Crow slammed employers for cutting crewing costs by employing non-EEA ratings and said that the industry and government had done nothing on ratings jobs and training whilst companies coined it in through the tonnage tax. “We have got to make some progress or we’ll lose the country’s seafaring capacity and history,” he said. Equality Act 2010 The current government has also reversed an extension of the Race Relations Act 1976 to cover seafarers, in order to stop shipping companies employing non-EEA seafarers in order to pay them less than UK seafarers for the same job. The delegation spelled out to Stephen Hammond the damaging impact that this reversal is having on jobs for UK seafarers, as shipping companies exploit this loophole to recruit seafarers from countries outside the European Economic Area and pay them less. The Minister was reminded of the recommendation of the Carter Review, commissioned by the last government, to abolish this form pay discrimination which is illegal in every other industry. The Minister agreed to set up a Working Party to review the impact of the regulations introduced by his predecessor, Mike Penning, which restricted the Equality Act to protect only EU seafarers from pay discrimination. RMT, Nautilus, the Chamber of Shipping and Government officials will be on the Working Party which will convene in the spring. Tonnage Tax MPs and RMT officials explained in detail to the Minister just how bad the deal from the Tonnage Tax is for UK ratings. Whilst the number of ships registered under the Red Ensign has increased six-fold since the introduction of the Tonnage Tax in 2000-01, the number of UK ratings and officers has declined to 23 per cent of the total workforce on these vessels. In the case of ratings, despite a near doubling in the total number of ratings working on qualifying vessels between 2003-04 and 2012-13, the proportion of UK ratings fell from 27.9 per cent to 17 per cent. The number of UK ratings working on Tonnage Tax vessels has remained static whilst the total number of ratings jobs on qualifying ships nearly doubled, from 6,357 in 2003-04 to 11,396 in 2012-13. In August, the UK Chamber of Shipping president Ken McLeod, a former rating, wrote to Stephen Hammond asking that the training commitments for Tonnage Tax companies are reformed to include training for UK ratings. Agreement was reached with the Chamber on seeking reform of training commitments to support ratings training through the Tonnage Tax. The union is currently working on the joint position with Nautilus and the Chamber. If successful this should increase the number of UK ratings employed in the industry. FIGHTING FOR SHIPPING JOBS