Newsletter No. 28
NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2005
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UK: fatigue at sea risks safety NUMAST, the UK union for maritime, aviation and shipping transport workers, is demanding increased ship crews and enforced limits on work hours, after Cardiff University found fatigue contributed to a ‘worrying number of collisions’. Sailors falsify their time sheets and work to exhaustion to make up for understaffing. Despite laws limiting work hours being introduced in 2001, the situation has worsened, because they are not enforced. This derives from the efforts owners, often multinationals, make to drive unions out of the industry. For instance, an Irish-owned ship dismissed a young crew member for complaining to a union about 90-hour, 7 day work weeks and appalling conditions (‘Crew member dismissed…’ 20.7.05). NUMAST has tried for 3 years to get Hoverspeed, a small cross-channel ferry company owned by US conglomerate Sea Containers, to recognise the union. Hoverspeed blocked this by sacking 80 per cent of its crew and rehiring them on seasonal contracts with lower pay and fewer entitlements. It threatens to replace them altogether if they continue to demand union representation. The prevailing attitude in the globalised transport industry is to drive down pay and conditions and raise hours. This is despite lip service from agencies such as the International Maritime Organisation, which claims employers appreciate the need for standards and a skilled, well remunerated work-force, so the industry can attract ‘quality’ workers seeking viable career choices. |