News / Agreement reached over freight vessels pay
AN AGREEMENT has been reached over low pay for workers on the Northern Isles freight vessels, which will see services return to operator Serco NorthLink.
Scottish transport minister Humza Yousaf confirmed on Thursday that a new arrangement will come into place in February which will see workers being paid at least the UK minimum wage instead of rates as low as £4.50 an hour.
However, transport union the RMT said that while the agreement in principle was a “welcome first step”, it would be pressing for Serco NorthLink to give freight staff the same wages as those working on its passenger boats.
The RMT previously claimed that around 20 foreign workers on the publicly-funded Helliar and Hildasay were being paid £2-3 less than the minimum wage by subcontractor Seatruck.
Seatruck said it was entitled to pay below the minimum wage as the vessels are not UK flagged and the staff in question are not UK residents.
The company previously refused offers from Serco NorthLink to bridge the wage difference and said it couldn’t deviate from its “fleet-wide pay structure”.
Yousaf, who met Seatruck officials in an attempt to resolve the matter, said he was “very pleased” to have secured an agreement.
The deal will see the two vessels chartered by Seatruck under a bareboat arrangement to the government owned Caledonian Maritime Assets Ltd. They will then be made available to Serco NorthLink.
“The new charter basis will allow the wage issue to be resolved,” Yousaf said. “Going forward, I can confirm that all crew members will be paid at least the minimum wage.
“It also means that the availability of suitable freighters to service these routes has been secured for the immediate future. There are still some details to be finalised, but we expect the change in charter agreement to be in place next month.”
The RMT will continue to fight for equal pay between NorthLink’s freight and passenger vessels and it hopes to achieve parity when the next north boats contract will be announced in 2018.
“Our case has always been that this is a Scottish Government contract and that rates of pay and conditions of service on the freight vessels should be the same as on the passenger vessels,” regional organiser Gordon Martin said.
“Those rates of pay and conditions of service are negotiated by the RMT and that is our ultimate aim. We’re looking to get that at the next invitation to tender for the NorthLink contract.”
Seatruck spokesman Tony Redding meanwhile said the company was happy to have reached an agreement.
“The vessels have been chartered to Transport Scotland and the operators, and it’s for them now to decide exactly the terms under which they’ll be run and what sort of arrangements they want to make regarding crewing and paying their wages,” he said.
“But what it does do is secure the ferries operating on this lifeline route for some years to come.”
Northern Isles MP Alistair Carmichael welcomed the news, but he warned that the freight vessels are merely the “tip of the iceberg” when it comes to low pay for seafarers.
He again called on the UK Government to look into ways of enforcing the minimum wage to all staff working in the North Sea.
“Many other companies employing seafarers on the North Sea are still paying less than the minimum wage and action is needed to close the loophole which allows this,” Carmichael said.
“This move follows a long, hard fought campaign from the RMT, and seafarers across my constituency and the Highlands and Islands, and I am glad a deal was able to be reached, but there is more work still to be done to ensure that the minimum wage applies to everyone.”
Serco NorthLink declined to comment.
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