NEW SHOCK REPORT ON WORKING CONDITIONS ON UK SHIPS

RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: february 2015 :: RMTnews 11 RMT is calling on the government to intervene to save Britain’s shipping sector from “terminal decline,” as a new report slams the low wages being paid to foreign workers in the industry. Research by Cardiff University professor Helen Sampson blasts the government’s “free seas” policy for failing to protect the British workforce. The report includes a list of “ships of shame” operating off the British coast. In order to reverse declining employment and training rates for UK seafarers, the Maritime Futures report makes a number of recommendations, including a different approach to minimum wage enforcement and reserving jobs on specified routes for UK seafarers on UK registered ships. Currently ferry companies get away with paying foreign workers well below the minimum wage by flying the flags of other countries. But employing exclusively foreign workers in the trade has caused a skills shortage and threatens national security, the report argues. Ms Sampson advocates reserving a proportion of each ship’s crew for the national workforce, and cites numerous examples of better practice abroad. She also insists that minimum wage laws should be applied directly to employers rather than waiting for workers to challenge them at tribunals. RMT launched the report in Parliament alongside a Maritime Manifesto which calls for the Royal Fleet auxiliary to be protected from privatisation and a review of the Maritime and Coastguard Agency. RMT shipping secretary Steve Todd said that UK seafarers were ageing and the next generation of seafarers, ratings and officers was not being trained. “This report provides government and the industry with the tools to provide some balance and stability to seafarer recruitment, something which has been missing from the industry for decades but is absolutely essential to our national economic health,” he said. The report acknowledges progress made under the current government in linking training for ratings to the concessions available to international shipping companies from the Tonnage Tax and the development of ratings apprenticeships. To build on that progress, the report recommends a mandatory link between Tonnage Tax and ratings training and support for travel and accommodation costs from shore based training for UK ratings. UK seafarer numbers which have fallen over 70 per cent in 30 years and the number of ratings has fallen nearly 30 per cent since 2011 to around 8,500. RMT general secretary, Mick Cash said that the Maritime Futures report provided clear pointers to where the next government needs to take action in order to protect seafarers’ jobs and the Red Ensign from unfair crewing and registration practices adopted by international shipping companies to cut costs at the expense of our national interest. “We should no longer tolerate shipping companies flying in low cost seafarers from around the world to work on ships from UK ports for rates of pay as low as £2.25 per hour. “The maritime industry needs reform in favour of UK based seafarers, the maritime skills base and the UK register,” he said. *The Maritime Futures Report was commissioned by RMT and written by Professor Helen Sampson, Director of the Seafarers International Research Centre at Cardiff University. http://www.sirc.cf.ac.uk/ Helen_Sampson_-_ Director.aspx Operator Routes Basic rate of pay (per hour) Flag of vessel Seafarer Nationality Crew (total ratings) Condor Ferries Portsmouth, Poole and Weymouth to Jersey and Guernsey £2.35 Bahamas Ukrainian 80 Streamline (MV Daroja) Aberdeen-Lerwick; Aberdeen-Kirkwall £2.25 Cyprus Indian & Russian 20 P&O Ferries (Irish Sea) Larne-Cairnryan; Larne-Troon; Dublin- Liverpool £4.70 (passenger) & £3.65 (freight) Bahamas & Bermudan Filipino, Latvian, Spanish 200 Seatruck Heysham-Dublin; Liverpool-Dublin; Heysham-Warrenpoint £3.66 Isle of Man and Bahamas Polish 30 Seatruck Ullapool-Stornoway (Clipper Ranger – chartered by CalMac) £4.19 Isle of Man Estonian 10 Seatruck Aberdeen-Lerwick (MV Helliar & MS Hildasay – Chartered by Serco NorthLink) £3.66 Isle of Man Estonian 20 Irish Ferries Dublin-Holyhead; Rosslare-Pembroke £5.55 Cyprus, Bahamas & Italy Estonian & Polish 50 P&O Ferries (North Sea) Hull-Zebrugge; Hull- Rotterdam £4.70 Bahamas Portuguese 300 Stena Line (North Sea) Harwich-Hook of Holland £2.39 (freight) UK Filipino 60 NEW SHOCK REPORT ON WORKING CONDITIONS ON UK SHIPS SHIPS OF SHAME: SEAFARER RATES BELOW THE NMW (SOURCE: ITF INSPECTIONS AND INDIVIDUAL CONTRACTS OF EMPLOYMENT) MEETING THE MEMBERS: National secretary Steve Todd and general secretary Mick Cash held discussions with members working on the Dover/Calais ferry route