JOB FOR UK SEAFARERS

RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: february 2017 :: RMTnews 9 RMT Parliamentary group members and cross-party MPs repeatedly pressed the Shipping Minister John Hayes to respond to the union’s SOS2020 campaign demands, including legislation to end the shipping industry’s shameful discrimination against seafarers, in a parliamentary debate last month. The debate saw cross-party support in the House of Commons for RMT’s campaign which incorporates our longstanding demands of reform to equality and employment law in order to reverse the decline in UK ratings over recent decades. MPs lined up to repeat the statistics which chart the startling decline in UK seafarer numbers, especially the 25 per cent decline in Ratings since 2011. MPs also repeatedly echoed union evidence of sub- minimum wage pay, the dangerously low levels of trainee ratings and the shipping industry’s discriminatory employment practices. RMT group MPs Kelvin Hopkins and Karl Turner pressed the minister to tackle nationality- based pay discrimination through implementing the Carter Report’s recommendation of completely outlawing this form of discrimination in the UK shipping industry. In response, the minister agreed to meet a cross-party group of MPs to discuss how to tackle pay discrimination in the shipping industry and its consequences for UK seafarers, particularly ratings. Prior to the debate, the Shipping Minister had announced that the Legal Working Group on the National Minimum Wage and Seafarers would be reformed to improve application and enforcement on the NMW across the UK shipping industry. MPs also acknowledged that this was important in reviving UK seafarer numbers, with Kelvin hitting the nail on the head when he said:“Properly negotiated pay rights for UK seafarers would be higher than that, but the minimum wage would at least provide a basic wage for all seafarers.” The problems offshore workers have faced in transferring from the oil and gas sector to the renewable energy sector were also raised by Karl Turner, whose Hull East constituency is a major hub for wind energy in the North Sea. Wind energy companies are introducing their own training standards and this can penalise those trained to existing standards for no good reason other than financial. Labour MP for Holyhead Albert Owen also called on the government to ensure that the offshore wind and wider maritime industries are met by an increased supply of properly trained domestic seafarers, working in an industry governed by effective safety standards. On the day of the debate, the Scottish government announced that the charter of the two Seatruck vessels on the Northern Isles contract would be changed to bring ratings pay up to the legal UK minimum required at least, .a victory for the union. Lib Dem MP for Orkney and Shetland Alistair Carmichael who secured the debate noted the union’s success in his opening remarks, as did SNP MP Chris Stephens who also called on the minister to ensure that such NMW protections are provided for seafarers working on vessels across the UK. Labour’s Shadow Transport Minister Pat Glass MP also welcomed the progress on Seatruck and the NMW but underlined the demand that the government publish a timeframe for implementing the Carter review recommendation, as well as publishing the long overdue findings of the review of the existing legislation in Part 5 of the Equality Act. “If we end the pay exploitation in shipping, we can help to reverse the decline of our merchant navy,” she said. In his response, the Shipping Minister admitted that more had to be done to increase the number of UK ratings and officers in training in order to avoid a skills deficit by the next decade, which is inevitable at this stage. “We need to recruit and train more British seafarers. It is as simple as that,” he said. The union is meeting the Shipping Minister at the end of the month, when the union will make it clear that if the government really wants more British seafarers to be trained and employed then they must introduce legislation to end pay discrimination and produce a timetable for doing this by September. Anything less would be a disgraceful climb down. Parliamentary column JOB FOR UK SEAFARERS!