5 April 2024
RMT Press Office:
RMT called for mandatory employment protections for all seafarers today, following the government's decision to invest in zero emission shipping routes to and from the UK.
If successful, the government claims the move will bring about zero emission shipping routes connecting the UK to the Netherlands, Norway, Denmark, and Ireland.
A pot of £1.5m funding for the fifth round of the Clean Maritime Demonstration Competition to deliver green shipping corridors is being made available.
However seafarers union, RMT general secretary Mick Lynch said: “The government should use this opportunity to introduce mandatory employment protections for all seafarers which would lead to increased maritime training including rating apprenticeships and decent job opportunities on passenger and freight routes from UK ports.
"Instead the Government has not even linked their new green corridor proposal with their hapless ‘minimum wage corridors’ which was put in place in response to P&O Ferries unlawful sacking of 800 seafarers in 2022.
"Public investment in Net Zero infrastructure in our commercial ports must be linked to mandatory seafarer employment standards, to end the scandal of operators like Cobelfret, P&O Ferries and Irish Ferries superexploiting agency crew from all over the world to work these short domestic sea routes."
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