The RMT is turning up the heat on the Government over a legal loophole which lets ferry operators between British ports ignore minimum wage legislation and pay non-UK seafarers as little as £2 an hour. The union is furious that the Foreign Office has blocked an amendment to the Equality Bill which would have closed that loophole.
General secretary Bob Crow said: “David Miliband and the Labour Government are presiding over a policy that openly allows the exploitation of seafarers on British ships.”
And an Early Day Motion tabled by Gwyn Prosser, Labour MP for Dover and Deal, condemns the “horrendous situation whereby ferry company owners and others, whose vessels regularly trade on fixed routes between UK ports, are allowed to pay poverty wages substantially below the minimum wage to non-UK seafarers.”
