Seafarer's pay: New legislation introduced and consultation response published.
06 July 2022
The Department for Transport has announced that new legislation has been introduced today which makes it illegal for seafarers to get paid less than the equivalent of the UK national minimum wage (NMW).
Earlier this year, the company P&O Ferries was brought into the spotlight after dismissing 800 workers on the spot through a pre-recorded Zoom call, with no prior consultation. It is understood that the staff were replaced with international workers who could be paid less than the equivalent of NMW due to a legal loophole. The Department for Business Energy and Industrial Strategy followed this up with the introduction of a statutory code of practice, before the Harbour Bill was announced in the Queen's speech in May this year. This Bill has now become effective as of today, and has legislated that seafarers in UK waters must be paid the equivalent of NMW.
The Bill will protect pay for thousands of seafarers who regularly work in UK waters, and will prevent companies from using a gap in legislation to pay their staff unfairly.
The announcement of the new Bill coincides with the swift response to the consultation on this Bill which closed on 7 June 2022. The majority of those who contributed to the consultation agreed that this pay protection should be introduced. The CIPP Policy Team also contributed to the consultation and CIPP members can see this and all other CIPP consultation responses here.
Below is a summary of the scope and enforcement of the new law:
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The Secretary of State will have powers to make regulations to specify the rate equivalent to NMW and give guidance to Statutory Harbour Authorities (SHAs) as to how to exercise their powers under the Act
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Services calling at UK ports on average at least once every 72 hours throughout the year, will need to declare to SHAs that they are paying their seafarers at least at a rate equivalent to NMW
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The Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) will play an enforcement role in checking the validity of declarations through spot checks
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SHAs will have powers to levy surcharges on ship-operators who do not provide evidence of compliance
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SHAs will have powers to suspend access to UK ports for operators who are persistently non-compliant
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