JUST TRANSITION AT STENA

RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: january/february 2024 :: RMTnews 11 RMT has said that handing disgraced P&O Ferries a new freight route from March between the Thames Freeport and Europoort in Rotterdam was a slap in the face for UK seafarers. The Dutch-flagged Norbay vessel will be used on the new route, having been transferred from the Liverpool-Dublin route that P&O Ferries scrapped last December. RMT general secretary Mick Lynch said that the government’s weak response to P&O Ferries slashing 786 seafarer jobs in March 2022 meant that the Dutch flagged ferry on this new route would not recover jobs for RMT members or tackle local economic deprivation. "P&O continues to deny their pension liabilities to UK seafarers and have even attacked dockers’ jobs in Rotterdam, where we expect this proposal to be equally controversial. "Clearly, the government’s Seafarers Wages Act and its voluntary Seafarers Charter have had no effect on P&O’s policy of exploiting workers for private profit in Dubai and the fact that this route is in the Thames Freeport in which DP World has a significant stake, tells us that the government prioritises big business over the needs of working people. "The government must demand a review of the employment conditions on this new route but to break the business model of rogue operators like P&O, we need a New Deal for workers that extends mandatory rights to fair pay agreements, safe working patterns and secure pension rights on short sea shipping routes,” he said. RMT and Stena Line have reached a Memorandum of Understanding to the benefit of employees subject to policies designed to improve the environmental and social sustainability of the shipping and ports industry. Both parties agreed that dialogue through the collective bargaining process must be respected as a core element of the Just Transition process. The agreement applies to the social, economic and environmental changes demanded by climate change which could have an impact on the livelihood, pay, employment conditions or fundamental rights of employees in the business covered by agreements with the union. Both parties endorse the UN International Maritime Organisation’s recognition of UN Sustainable Development Goal 13 - to take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts – in line with the 2015 Paris Agreement to cut greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions which cause global warming. They also agree to work for a just transition to meet the IMO targets for CO2 emission reductions per journey of 40 per cent by 2030 and the ambition to reduce annual GHG emissions from shipping by 30 per cent by 2030; 80 per cent by 2040 and to achieve net-zero by 2050. The agreement recognises the following areas which to passenger and freight vessels and ports covered by collective bargaining agreements between the RMT and UK subsidiaries of the Stena Group: • Low and zero emission forms of fuel • Bunkering, storage, safety and shoreside supply of low and zero GHG- emission fuels • Training, re-training and upskilling of seafarer Ratings and port operative and clerical grades • Digitalisation on board passenger and freight vessels and in port storage, warehouse, operational and clerical premises • The application of Artificial Intelligence in Stena Group’s shipping and ports businesses • Workplace policies designed to reduce GHG emissions RMT national secretary Darren Procter said that workers affected by Just Transition changes must be entitled to free re-training and contiguous employment at no loss of pay or detriment to contractual terms and conditions of employment, including pension rights. Where technological or other changes are proposed in the workplace or to the job in response to the climate emergency would result in the replacement of a worker, the worker will be offered re- training and work elsewhere in the business, at no loss of pay or detriment to contractual conditions of employment or to their fundamental employment or human rights. “There is also a welcome commitment to develop workplace education programmes for trade union representatives and the wider workforce on just transition policies at Stena,” he said. JUST TRANSITION AT STENA ‘DISGRACED’ P&O HANDED NEW FREIGHT ROUTE Tilbury Port