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UK faces flak on minimum seafarer wage
Thursday 23 October 2008

<p>THE UK&#8217;S main ratings union has reiterated its call for the national minimum wage to apply in UK ports and internal waters after the issue was raised in parliament.</p>
<p>Gwyn Prosser, the Labour MP for Dover and himself a former shipping officer, used the standard device of asking Jim Fitzpatrick, the junior minister responsible for shipping, when discussions were last held on the issue.</p>
<p>Following a non-committal reply from Mr Fitzpatrick, Mr Prosser asked when the government was going to close what he described as the &#8220;loophole&#8221; that allows some foreign seafarers to be paid less than £2 ($3.27) an hour in these circumstances.</p>
<p>The RMT says that employers operating Cypriot, Indian, Italian and Maltese-flagged vessels between UK ports or working in the UK offshore sector routinely offer rates as low as £1.63 an hour in some cases.</p>
<p>RMT general secretary Bob Crow said: &#8220;Gwyn Prosser has done a huge service by raising the shame of poverty wages being paid to seafarers working on ships that ply only between UK ports or service the UK offshore sector.</p>
<p>&#8220;When the minimum wage was brought in, the government assured us it would apply to seafarers, but there are employers out there paying seafarers at rates that would land them at court if they tried to get away with paying them on dry land.&#8221;</p>
<p>Mr Crow said there is no legal reason why the minimum wage cannot be applied to all seafarers working on all vessels that ply solely between UK ports, and that the Employment Bill currently before parliament offers the right opportunity to amend the existing framework.</p>
<p>&#8220;That is not a lot to ask, but it would protect some of the most exploited people working in the UK, and it would help stop the erosion of UK seafarers&#8217; jobs that has seen the number of UK ratings fall to its lowest-ever level,&#8221; Mr Crow said.</p>
<p>&#8220;This is not an academic exercise &#8212; it is about stopping the abuse of workers taking place right now on ships that operate between UK ports, and the time has come to stop it.&#8221;</p>
<p>A spokesman for the Chamber of Shipping said: &#8220;Enforcement of any application of the minimum wage to non-UK flagged ships would prove difficult.</p>
<p>&#8220;Ships on one port or UK port to UK port voyages are already covered by the current work permit system &#8212; soon to become points-based &#8212; which requires any seafarer from outside the European Economic Area to be paid the same as a UK seafarer.&#8221;</p>

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