Call for an end '¨to poor pay for '¨ferry workers

A TRANSPORT union is calling a protest after some ferry workers were paid under £2.50 per hour.
Union members staged a demonstration in 2012 at the Portsmouth International Port against what they termed 'poverty pay' for some Condor Ferry workersUnion members staged a demonstration in 2012 at the Portsmouth International Port against what they termed 'poverty pay' for some Condor Ferry workers
Union members staged a demonstration in 2012 at the Portsmouth International Port against what they termed 'poverty pay' for some Condor Ferry workers

The National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers have organised a protest in Portsmouth tomorrow and are calling for an end to Condor Ferries poverty wages on their ships.

Ukrainian seafarers on a three-month contract with the company were paid £2.46 per hour for a 12-hour working day according to a contract of employment in 2014.

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RMT General Secretary, Mick Cash said: ‘UK and Channel Island seafarers cannot and should not have to compete with pay rates as low as £2.46 per hour.

‘With wages like that it is no wonder that between 1980 and 2016 the number of UK Ratings fell by over 60 per cent.

‘There are 87,000 ratings jobs on ferries and other merchant vessels working from UK ports, with a vast majority paid below the UK National Minimum Wage.

‘RMT is fighting to change this.’

The RMT’s SOS 2020 campaign is calling out companies’ profiting from the exploitation of seafarers, which includes Condor Ferries’ owners, the Australian bank Macquarie who extract a management fee under the current contract with the governments of Jersey and Guernsey.

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The union is demanding a living wage of £9.75 per hour as a minimum of lifeline Channel Island ferry services, recognition for RMT to collectively bargain for seafarer Ratings and for all UK-Channel Island ferries to register with British shipping registers, the Red Ensign Group.

Paul Luxon, Condor Ferries CEO, said: ‘Condor totally refutes the RMT’s absurd statements made in relation to our treatment of staff.

‘We fully comply with, and indeed exceed domestic and international employment regulations covering the pay, terms and conditions and protection of all and which includes full compliance with the MLC 2006.

‘Ninety-five per cent of employees are recruited from the UK, Guernsey, Jersey and France and the remainder are non-EU nationals.

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‘Everyone is a proud and integral part of the Condor family and duty of care is one of the four pillars that underpin our business.’

The protest will take place tomorrow from 1.30pm at Portsmouth International in George Byng Way, PO2 8SP.