SEAFARERS Union RMT today called for meaningful action against P&O Ferries after the government’s Seafarers Wages Bill began its journey through the Houses of Parliament yesterday.
The government drew up the Bill after 800 directly employed seafarers were sacked by P&O in March and replaced by low paid agency workers. The Bill is supposed to grant protection to seafarers working in UK waters but the company has already avoided prosecution from the Insolvency Service in the Summer.
The Bill is currently being debated in the House of Lords and will go before the House of Commons in the coming weeks.
RMT general secretary Mick Lynch said: “The lack of any punishment to date for P&O Ferries’ illegal attack on maritime jobs and skills has not gone unnoticed particularly in ports such as Dover and Hull affected by this unchecked corporate aggression designed in Dubai.
“The Seafarers Wages Bill is the government’s main response to P&O Ferries but, typically it avoids using collective agreements between employers and unions to regulate crew wages on international routes.
“We urge Parliamentarians in both Houses to support amendments that broaden the scope of the Bill so that it promotes trade union agreed pay and conditions, providing permanent employment, safe roster patterns
and above minimum protections for as many seafarers as possible.
“That is the sort of growth required to get the UK as a seafaring nation
out of the maritime abyss our seafarers face after 12 years of Tory governments,” he said.
