RMT responds to Carnival UK 'fire and rehire' plans

 Mick Lynch, RMT General Secretary said: “RMT haven’t received a HR1 form from P&O Cruises or from their crewing agent in Mumbai.

"We have had no contact from the Bermudan ship registry either.

"Our members covered by the RMT legacy agreements at P&O Cruises and others working across the Carnival UK Group are rightly concerned at the reports that their employers may be seeking to enact a fire and rehire scheme as a means of slashing pay and conditions.

"RMT share those concerns.

"The cruise industry has systematically replaced UK Ratings with cheaper international crew, some on rates of pay below £1 per hour, as executive pay and dividends sky rocketed. Carnival received taxpayer support during the pandemic, when RMT members worked to keep this lucrative multinational cruise company in business.

"What really irks our members is that we are currently engaged in formal pay talks with this employer.

"As with the P&O Ferries scandal, this smacks of an attack on seafarers jobs and on their trade union rights, under a Tory Government that would rather ram through attacks on the fundamental right to strike than act quickly to protect British Ratings’ jobs from rogue employers.

"We are due to meet the company again on Monday to discuss pay, when we will be demanding that they rule out fire and rehire and threat of redundancy, as well as improving the risible 2% pay offer they have made to some of the few Ratings in the cruise industry who are actually covered by a decent collective bargaining agreement.”

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