seamen low wages

Unions call on government to halt poverty wages at sea and close a legal loophole which allows shipping companies to discriminate against overseas workers employed on UK ships by paying them as little as £2 an hour.

The unions are concerned that an exemption under what was then the Race Relations Act (and which has now been replaced by the Equality Act 2010) fails to protect foreign seafarers from discrimination, despite EU law which prevents unfavourable treatment on the grounds of nationality. Several years ago the RMT complained to the EU about the then UK government's failure to apply the Race Relations Act to ratings employed on British ships. The unions and the TUC are now seeking an urgent meeting with Shipping Minister Mike Penning to persuade him to implement regulations outlawing pay discrimination on ships with a British flag.

The unions say that many of the seafarers in receipt of poverty wages are from the Philippines or India, and work either on domestic ferry routes or on ships sailing to and from the gas and oil fields in the North Sea.