Such a move, said P&O Ferries CEO Peter Hebblethwaite, would lead to the collapse of the company, adding that the transport secretary “ignored the fundamental and realities of the situation.” It would not be the first time a minister has done so when it comes to the sea. While Shapps has now pledged action against P&O Ferries, which fired the entire crew across the UK for its “British” (but Jersey-issued) contracts and to enforce minimum wages, the government has turned a blind eye to payment abuses. In 2014, the late Bob Crow, then leader of the RMT union, denounced the “over-exploitation of foreign nationals in the British shipping industry; a huge scandal that the political elite wants to silence”. The union has launched protests against Condor Ferries, which sails from Portsmouth and Poole to the Channel Islands with crews from overseas agencies, which it says pay just 2, 2.40 an hour. (Condor did not respond to a request for comment.) In 2017, inspections of several vessels by different operators working in UK ports by the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) confirmed that payment below the minimum wage was widespread. In early 2021, when Irish Ferries announced plans to bring its low-cost crew model to the Dover-Calais runway, the unions warned of a race down. Irish Ferries were the ancestors of P&O Ax, in 2005 firing – albeit by arrangement – hundreds of crew members to replace them with foreign staff. Instead of acting, RMT complained, the government “opened the red carpet”. (Irish Ferries did not respond to a request for comment.) Hemblewate was asked by Darren Jones, chairman of the Communities’ business committee, if he was a “shameless criminal”, but he answered honestly many of the questions the ministers did not really want to ask. The average salary of a sailor in Jersey’s contract was .000 36,000 a year, he said at last week’s hearings. Raising this cheap agency crew, the average hourly wage will now be around 50 5.50 an hour. Dealing with the minimum wage, one clear, unequivocal promise of action from Shapps, was in fact welcomed by P&O Ferries to “level the playing field”. RMT supports the imposition, but points out that it has nothing to do with the immediate crisis: “We do not want P&O staff who had much more than the minimum wage to return with a 60% pay cut,” said a spokesman. In addition, it is strange for Shapps to now hoist a flag: the minimum wage law was extended in October 2020 to most seafarers working in UK waters, regardless of where a ship was registered. But ferries were not included. Tim Tyndall, an employment partner at Keystone Law, says: “The law framework is already in place. “But while this has been cited as a ‘window’ in the legislation, it’s not empty at all,” says Tyndall. “The exclusion of employees in the shipping services was quite expedient.” Rest periods are more critical to P&O cost savings than the hourly rate. Until the March 17 massacre, the crew was paid full time for seven consecutive 12-hour shifts, sleeping on the boat, followed by a seven-day leave. Now, the agency staff will be hired for a fortnight at a time with a much lower salary, with no income in between. As Hebblethwaite explained in a letter to Shapps: ». Ship operators claim that they are simply using the global labor market. Few vacationers enjoying how far their pound or dollar goes in Eastern Europe or Asia may worry about local wages. But ships bring this difference straight to UK ports. According to the Ministry of Transport, less than 15% of seafarers working for UK-based companies are British. outside the ranks of officers, more than three quarters come from countries outside the United Kingdom or the European Economic Area. While P&O Cruises’ latest advertising campaign is trying to distance itself from P&O Ferries, the Carnival-owned company has paid hourly rates that even a Hebblethwaite could not have dreamed of. In 2012, a Guardian survey found that ships sailing from Southampton paid staff at least 75 ppm basic salary. Asked if these rates had improved, a P&O Cruises spokesman said: “The cruise industry generally employs seafarers of more than 50 different nationalities. “Our pay rates are competitive, fair and equitable and are based on market conditions in the seafarers’ country of origin.” Subscribe to the daily Business Today email or follow the Guardian Business on Twitter at @BusinessDesk The minimum wage for skilled workers in the Indian state of Marahstrata, home to the Bombay Carnival’s Mum’s agency’s offices, is currently 470 rupees (,7 4.73) a day. How Shapps gets into this murky waters will be watched with interest. In the UK, meanwhile, P&O Ferries has opened its booth to become the most recent employer in the concert economy. According to a list for the Pride of Kent, one of the four Dover-based ships that lost a total of just 600 jobs, the crew is now almost entirely from Eastern Europe, flown in for cheap fortnightly work and then shipped back. . A Nautilus International spokesman said: “What about all these people who have been trained as sailors in the UK? “And what does it say about us as a country that we allow this to happen?”
