Nautilus International, the UK’s largest maritime union, has condemned P&O Ferries for continuing to exploit agency crew recruited from abroad. Over the weekend, Nautilus received information, annexed below, that P&O Ferries has retained two new crewing agencies, with the main one ‘Phil Crew Management Limited’ based out of Malta.
Fear Of Job Loss
‘PhilCrew’ was established on 6th April 2023, has a website consisting of three pages, and is registered to an address it shares with more than 20 other companies. The communication from P&O Ferries informed the existing crew that if they did not sign up with the new agency, they would no longer have a job.
The ‘Crew Management Changes Q&A’ document sent from P&O Ferries to crew also suggests that pay is being ‘reviewed’ with no guarantee that salaries won’t be cut nor is there any guarantee that contract lengths won’t change, except for watch-keepers.
Race To The Bottom
Shadow Secretary of State for Transport Louise Haigh tweeted a response to a Nautilus social post on the crewing changes:‘ P&O Ferries wanted a race to the bottom, and the Conservatives have let them get away with it. Labour would introduce a binding Seafarers’ Charter and end the shameful exploitation of seafarers.’
In March 2022, P&O Ferries unlawfully sacked almost its entire UK based seafaring workforce, without consultation or notice, and replaced them with agency crew, some of whom were paid significantly less than the UK minimum wage and employed on much longer tours of duty that the unions considered to be unsafe. ‘Nautilus has welcomed the passing of the Seafarers Wages Act, but as this development shows, and as we have continually warned, this bill is not enough on its own.
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Source: Nautilusint
