News / Talks over low-paid Seatruck freight staff
TALKS were held between under-fire shipping company Seatruck and Scottish ministers in Edinburgh on Thursday as efforts continue to improve the pay of workers on the Northern Isles freight service earning around £2-3 less than the UK minimum wage.
Scotland’s transport and islands minister Humza Yousaf met Seatruck chief executive Alistair Eagles after it emerged the company was continuing to refuse an offer from Serco NorthLink to bridge the pay difference.
Around 20 workers on the freight vessels Helliar and Hildasay are being paid far below the UK minimum of £7.20 an hour. Seatruck, the subcontractor which charters the two vessels for Serco NorthLink, has conceded some workers are earning just £4.50 an hour on boats that travel between three UK ports – Lerwick, Kirkwall and Aberdeen.
While not technically against the law due to a loophole, Seatruck has faced stern criticism from politicians but has so far refused to buckle, citing a “fleet-wide pay structure” that it cannot afford to deviate from.
Seatruck spokesman Tony Redding said it had been an “excellent meeting” where “both sides put their points of view” across and “we have some proposals on the table for consideration”
He added Seatruck was now waiting for Transport Scotland to “come back to us in due course”.
A Scottish Government spokesman said it had been a “constructive meeting” after which “further work will be undertaken by Seatruck and Transport Scotland to try and resolve the current situation”.
“The minister has also written to the UK Government to ask them to take action on the national minimum wage and seafarers,” the spokesman continued.
“Scottish ministers are currently considering all available options and legal implications to promote fair work practices, including collective bargaining and payment of the national minimum wage and, where possible, the Scottish living wage in their contracts.”
Meanwhile, Northern Isles MP Alistair Carmichael is also calling on the government to act “as a matter of urgency” following revelations that some seafarers in the North Sea may be receiving as little as £2 an hour, while more than half of non-UK vessels in the area employ crew on less than the minimum wage.
“I have long suspected that the situation around seafarers’ pay in the North Sea was worse than we knew,” Carmichael said.
“The oil companies who benefit from these practices could end it tomorrow by insisting that the companies with which they contract pay their employees a decent living wage.
“Failing that the government must act as a matter of urgency to ensure that the HMRC investigates and enforces minimum wage legislation.
“If this was happening on dry land, enforcement action would be taken immediately. It would not be tolerated. Because they are happening at sea, however, it is out of sight and out of mind.
“The majority of the seafarers employed on these terms are foreign nationals. It is unacceptable that they should be exploited in this way but we should not lose sight of the fact that British seafarers are also losing out.
“By allowing companies to undercut wages that they would have to pay to British seafarers we are denying jobs to our own merchant seamen.”
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