News / Union may call for freight vessel boycott
SHIPPING union RMT is calling for a boycott of the freight vessels serving Shetland, Orkney and the western isles if their operator continues to pay “poverty wages” to foreign crews.
The RMT say that Irish operators Seatruck are paying Estonian and Latvian crews working on the Serco NorthLink vessels Hildasay and Helliar less than the minimum wage.
The Scottish government has called on the UK government to close the legal loopholes that make this possible, while the union warns it will pursue “every industrial and political avenue” to bring an end to the situation.
The move comes ahead of the Scottish government going out to tender for the western isles and Clyde crossing routes that are currently operated by Caledonian MacBrayne, who have been chartering the Seatruck vessel Clipper Ranger since last September.
RMT national secretary Steve Todd said that the situation was bizarre in that both Serco NorthLink and CalMac wanted all crew to be paid the full rate agreed many years ago after negotiations with his union.
However Seatruck were refusing to accept the money from the two shipping lines to pay their crews.
“It’s a very, very strange state of affairs, the most odd situation I have come across,” he said.
“The companies are saying they will pay the money to the operators, and Seatruck are saying no way will we make a precedent – we want to keep the crews paid £4.10 or whatever an hour.”
Todd said the pay agreement had been made before Serco took over the north boats contract two years ago, but had never been implemented because of Seatruck’s attitude.
The union says it wants to highlight the exploitation of foreign workers ahead of the tendering process for the Clyde and Hebrides ferry contract, which is due to start in the autumn.
They have now written to Holyrood and Westminster as well as the Maritime & Coastguard Agency and the International Transport Workers’ Federation demanding urgent action.
Todd said this was a state-subsidised services and the government should enforce the minimum wage on Seatruck vessels or have them classed as flags of convenience, not covered by international agreements and therefore open to a boycott. The Helliar, Hildasay and Clipper Ranger are all registered in the Isle of man.
“We will have to look at every industrial and political avenue to get the crews paid properly,” he warned.
“I would like to see a boycott because of Seatruck’s intransigence, in fact I would like to see them chased out of the charter industry.”
Serco NorthLink managing director Stuart Garrett said the issue was between Seatruck and its crew.
“Our freight vessels are time chartered and we have no involvement in the terms and conditions under which they operate,” he said.
“We remain in contact with the vessel owners and operator as a consequence of the matter being raised as they seek to resolve this in a satisfactory manner.”
A CalMac spokesman agreed crew pay was a matter for their employer, but said talks with Seatruck to resolve the pay disparity between foreign and other crew members were taking longer than they had hoped.
A Scottish government spokesman said transport minister Keith Brown had last month written to UK shipping minister Stephen Hammond asking him to close any legal loopholes that allow this situation to arise.
He said they had made it clear to both Serco NorthLink and CalMac they expected them to offer to pay for increases to foreign crews’ wage levels backdated to the start of the charter agreement, but Seatruck had not agreed to the offer.
“We take very seriously the issue of the UK national minimum wage for staff paid both directly and indirectly by this government, and officials are also looking at opportunities in future procurement activity to pilot measures to encourage payment of the living wage,” he said.
No one from Seatruck was available for comment.
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