GOVERNMENT TOLD TO IMPROVE BUS SERVICES

RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: april 2023 :: RMTnews 4 R MT has lambasted the government ahead of the National Minimum Wage (NMW) increase, pointing out that thousands of seafarers will not be eligible for the rise. From this month, the national minimum wage will rise by 9.7 per cent from £9.50 to £10.42 for all over 23-year olds. However, despite the Seafarers Wages Act being passed, it will not come into full force until next year, meaning P&O Ferries and other operators will be under no legal obligation pay the new NMW rate. Due to legal loopholes, some agency crews being employed by P&O, Irish Ferries Seatruck, Condor Ferries, Cobelfret and others are being paid as little as £4 an hour in British waters on routes which call at UK ports up to five times a day. Other seafarers who will miss out include some of those working in offshore wind and the green energy supply chain. The Seafarers Wages Act and the National Minimum Wage (Offshore Employment) Order 2020 do not apply to seafarers working on vessels servicing offshore wind/renewable installations out to the 200-mile limit of the UK Exclusive Economic Zone. RMT general secretary Mick Lynch said that the modest rise in the National Minimum wage was below the rate of inflation and does not even apply to thousands of low paid seafarers working regularly from UK ports for anti-trade union operators. "The government makes a lot of noise about improving the lot of seafarers in response to the P&O Ferries scandal but the reality for seafarers is a race to the bottom through super exploitation of their terms and conditions where RMT does not have recognition with the employer. "Ministers are refusing to tighten legal loopholes which permit this rampant exploitation and this refusal to protect decent jobs and skills is accelerating a decline in pay and working conditions for seafarer Ratings. "RMT will continue to campaign for decent treatment of seafarers through mandatory fair pay agreements with the maritime unions, which is the only way to rein in the P&Os of the maritime world,” he said.   SEAFARERS LOSE OUT ON NATIONAL MINIMUM WAGE T he House of Commons transport select committee has told the government that it needs to do more to improve bus services across the country. Its report found that £1 billion made available to local authorities for their Bus Service Improvement Plans ‘is simply not enough money to produce real improvements in bus services across the whole country’ and that ‘allowing roughly half the country to miss out risks entrenching, and in some cases creating, a two- tier system in which bus services improve in one area while, across an invisible county border, they worsen or even disappear".  It highlights that the government hasn’t reviewed the ban on municipal bus companies, or issued new guidance on socially and economically necessary services and says ‘we urge the government to put its promises into action’. The report concludes: "post-pandemic, many people’s lives have changed, and this has altered, perhaps permanently, when and where they wish to travel. "So far, the government has responded to this challenge with limited, albeit welcome, schemes such as the £2 fare cap. But it needs to do more. It would be absurd for the government to spend billions of pounds to support the ailing bus sector through the pandemic and then allow it to wither away". RMT general secretary Mick Lynch said that the report underlined the reality that the government had failed to fund bus services properly. “RMT believes there needs to be drastic overhaul in how we run our bus services in our towns, villages and cities.  "Local bus services are a lifeline for many, providing access to employment, education and healthcare, but the decline experienced since the industry was deregulated means that few people have access to a reliable bus service. "Two years after its National Bus Strategy was published, the government has still not acted on its commitment to review the ban on municipal bus companies. "It is clear ministers are more interested in protecting bumper profits made by bus companies, than protecting and providing a vital service to passengers. "Local authorities need sufficient ring-fenced national funding to run their bus services in public ownership as part of an integrated and publicly owned public transport network,” he said (see pages 16 17).   GOVERNMENT TOLD TO IMPROVE BUS SERVICES