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RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: march 2018 :: RMTnews
10
RMT took the SOS2020
campaign for ending
employment barriers to more
jobs and training for UK
seafarers and offshore workers
to Aberdeen last month.
The union held protests
outside the constituency office
of Conservative MP for
Aberdeen South, Ross Thomson
demanding his support for the
union’s campaign for
enforcement of the National
Minimum Wage on commercial
vessels working from and
between UK ports in the North
Sea.
Then protests were held
outside Oil & Gas UK’s
Aberdeen office to demand that
employers in the offshore oil
and gas sector work with trade
unions to lift barriers to
employment for offshore
workers.
Over 160,000 jobs have gone
on installations and across the
supply chain in the UK North
Sea since 2014 and increasing
taxpayer support for extracting
remaining resources and in
decommissioning ageing
infrastructure must be
accompanied by compliance
with UK employment law and
full trade union recognition.
RMT general secretary Mick
Cash said that RMT members,
branches and officials were
campaigning hard for more jobs
and training for seafarers and
offshore workers in the UK.
"Our protests in Aberdeen
demand a response from the
local MP Ross Thomson to the
avoidance of the NMW which
Aberdeen-based companies are
engaging in through their
crewing policies on offshore
standby and supply vessels.
"Domestic seafarers cannot
and should not have to compete
with pay below the legal
minimum in offshore supply,
offshore renewables and
decommissioning.
"Instead of phony guidance,
the Tory government must
apply and enforce UK national;
minimum wage pay rates for
seafarers on all domestic and
North Sea energy routes, in line
with the Legal Working Group
on Seafarers,” he said.
RMT national secretary Steve
Todd said that the union was
committed to the vital aims of
the SOS 2020 campaign and
RMT’s offshore strategy.
"We demand that the local
Tory MP stop waxing lyrical
about tax cuts for oil and gas
companies and start addressing
the loss of jobs and skills in
Aberdeen from the undermining
of employment rights in the
North Sea.
"RMT members are also
taking that message to the
Aberdeen office of the industry
lobby group, Oil and Gas UK
which routinely defends pay
and employment practices that
would be illegal on land and
does nothing to promote trade
union rights in the North Sea.
"Maximising Economic
Recovery, decommissioning and
offshore energy must mean jobs
for UK offshore workers in
every discipline,” he said.
SOS2020 IN ABERDEEN
Fighting for decent pay standards for
seafarers and offshore workers