Unions seek to close pay loophole aboard ships

The government has been urged to close a loophole which unions said was leading to foreign crews on UK-run ships being paid as little as £2 an hour.

The TUC and maritime unions Nautilus and the Rail Maritime and Transport union (RMT) said foreign seafarers on domestic ferry routes or ships sailing to and from North Sea oil and gas fields faced discrimination because of an exemption under the Equality Act.

Workers, many from the Philippines and India, were being paid "poverty wages" because of the legal loophole, said the unions. Officials are seeking talks with the government and calling for urgent action to halt the practice.

Bob Crow, general secretary of the RMT said: "It is time to outlaw the ships of shame. It is a national scandal that employers are exploiting this loophole to deny seafarers a living wage.

"We will continue the fight to stop this outrage which allows companies to wrap themselves in the respectability of the British flag while treating their workforce like slave labour."

Nautilus general secretary Mark Dickinson said: "All EU nationals on UK ships are entitled under EU law to equal treatment and it is therefore necessary for the government to align UK law with European law without delay to avoid sanctions from Europe."

TUC general secretary Brendan Barber said: "The government should play fair at sea and end the loophole that allows foreign crew on ships in UK waters to be so shoddily treated.

"If it doesn't act, ministers could be taken to court by the EU and run the risk of the country being fined millions of euros at a time when the public finances are under great strain.

"Some shipping owners have threatened to register their boats under the flags of other countries if the law is changed, but ministers should ignore this blatant attempt to cry wolf, do the right thing and call time on poverty wages."