Fighting for fair pay for seafarers
by Martyn Gray
Never before has it been so important to support and retain our seafarers. Over the past two years, throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, they have worked tirelessly to keep supply lines open across the globe, bringing food and medicines and other vital supplies to our shores. And they did this under extremely difficult and stressful conditions.
P&O Ferries unlawful mass-sacking of 786 loyal and dedicated seafarers was one of the darkest days in the UK’s more recent maritime history. Those people saw their livelihoods cruelly snatched from them in the space of a three-minute pre-recorded video call. This awful situation was made even worse by P&O Ferries’ chief executive Peter Hebblethwaite’s appearance before a committee of Parliament where he made a futile at tempt to defend his actions, even saying he would take the same unlawful action again.
After sacking most of their crew, P&O Ferries then replaced them with agency workers recruited from abroad, some paid significantly less than the UK national minimum wage. Some agency workers were employed on tours of duty that P&O Ferries’ own research told them was unsafe. Quite simply, P&O Ferries sacked their existing crew to implement a crewing model based on the exploitation of workers.
The UK Government quickly recognised this and within days of the mass-sacking vowed to take action to “force P&O Ferries to rethink and ensure this can never happen again”. Government actions, through the Seafarers’ Wages Bill, have focussed on extending minimum wage coverage to seafarers operating regularly in UK waters. This is a welcome move; any effort to enhance the rights of seafarers should be applauded. However, the Seafarers’ Wages Bill, in its current form, would not meet the desired outcome of expanding minimum wage coverage to seafarers.
The Bill currently contains significant loopholes that would simply allow operators to avoid paying their workers minimum wage, not least as the legislation stipulates that surcharges (the main penalty for not complying with Mini mum Wage Equivalent requirements) can be used by Harbour Authorities for funding their day-to-day operations, meaning that in ports where the Service Operator and Harbour Authority are the same company, they would be able to pay itself a surcharge and use that to fund usual business costs. This is hardly an incentive for the company to comply.
Services that operate less frequently from UK ports will also not be covered by the bill, with services operating from a variety of ports able to escape the grasp of the bill through potential ‘port-hopping’. The proposed legislation will require significant amendments as it takes its journey through both houses of parliament to ensure loopholes are closed and the legislation is workable, meeting its professed aims.
More than minimum
While we welcome this legislation and will work to improve it, we cannot for get that P&O Ferries exposed more than just lack of minimum wage coverage. Our members at P&O Ferries weren’t paid minimum wage, they benefited from union negotiated conditions and rates of pay. Expanding the minimum wage, on its own, will not force P&O Ferries to end the race to the bottom on pay and conditions.
Nautilus, the RMT and industry representatives have developed a ‘Fair Ferries Strategy’ also named the ‘Sea farer Welfare Framework Agreement’. This is a comprehensive and concrete framework that, if implemented, would create minimum standards in both pay and conditions for workers in the ferry industry, reflective of local conditions – not international minimums. This would be enforced, and built upon, through collective bargaining agreements allowing for a truly collaborative approach between employers and unions creating a genuine level playing field for both operators and employees in the ferry industry. This proposal would allow for a modern thriving ferry industry that is competitive and delivers decent local jobs.
P&O Ferries sent a message that seafarers are expendable and if you are rich enough, you can buy your way out of the laws of this country. Only strong and effective action from government will reverse this. Action on minimum wage is welcome but it will not be the antidote to the race to the bottom P&O Ferries have exacerbated. Our Fair Ferries strategy, which goes beyond just minimum wage, creating decent pay and conditions for ferry workers, would, in the words of the Transport Secretary, “force P&O Ferries to rethink and ensure this can never happen again”, an aim we wholeheartedly support.
Martyn Gray is executive officer Nautilus International
