RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: april 2021 :: RMTnews

RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: april 2021 :: RMTnews 4 R MT has raised serious concerns over the announcement that Irish Ferries will commence a service on the Dover – Calais route despite having a proven reputation for social dumping, replacing local workers with cheap foreign labour. The union has written to Irish Ferries seeking a meeting to outline the union’s concerns surrounding employment practices and the threat that this development poses to employment of RMT members at both P&O Ferries and DFDS Ferries. RMT general secretary Mick Cash said that it was imperative that local labour and safe roster patterns were used when this new service commences. “That means that the salaries of ratings onboard the ships are in line with those at companies where RMT has collective bargaining agreements. "RMT previously raised concerns when P&O withdrew two vessels from the route of the possibility of another operator coming into the port of Dover. “The union will not sit by and allow seafarers to be exploited or unsafe working conditions to be introduced from the port of Dover and we will be seeking public and political support for our demands,” he said. R MT is preparing to ballot its seafarer and port members over the company’s proposals on sick pay. A company sick pay scheme, agreed with the recognised trade unions, has been in place for seafarers and port workers in Stena Line until the start of the pandemic when the employer unilaterally scrapped it, forcing staff infected with or displaying symptoms of Coronavirus to rely on Statutory Sick Pay. RMT general secretary, Mick Cash said that Stena Line had taken outrageous health risks at the start of this pandemic by scrapping the union-agreed sick pay scheme. “Care is one of the core principles of the Stena Line brand but this was completely contradicted when our members needed support the most, forcing key workers to decide between illness or poverty. The union has argued that the company’s actions had played a part in the two outbreaks of Covid-19 on Stena Line ships during the pandemic. There was a Coronavirus outbreak amongst crew on the Italian-registered Stena Horizon working between Holyhead and Dublin in November last year which required the whole crew to self-isolate on the vessel and a second outbreak occurred amongst crew on the Stena Edda in December on the Belfast-Birkenhead route, leaving over 300 passengers stranded. It was only after those two outbreaks that the company got back around the table to discuss a new sick pay scheme and now the company was refusing to budge on proposals that are inferior to the scheme they scrapped. “We are now asking our members whether they are prepared to take industrial action on Stena Line ships and in Stena Line ports in order to restore a decent, union agreed sick pay scheme. “Our members have been patient and battled through the pandemic at great personal cost to keep the company afloat and Stena Line need to recognise that ahead of an expected recovery in passenger numbers,” Mick Cash said. STRIKE ACTION BALLOT AT STENA LINE  COVID: The Stena Line Birkenhead to Belfast ferry in port at Birkenhead on the River Mersey NO TO SOCIAL DUMPING AT DOVER