A loophole in the law allows ferry operators between British ports to ignore minimum wage legislation and pay non-British seafarers as little as £2 an hour. With the Equality Bill reaching its final report stage on 1 December 2009, the Foreign Office under David Miliband ignored specialist maritime legal opinion in order to block an amendment which would have closed the loophole, by claiming that applying the minimum wage on ferries trading solely between British ports could mean that Britain is in breach of the United Nations Convention of the Law of the Sea. Any excuse to maintain poverty wages and undercut British workers…
It is a ruling that would have pleased the European Court of Justice. When the Finnish ferry company Viking Line attempted to reflag one of its ships to Estonia and replace Finnish seafarers with cheaper Estonian labour, Finnish workers decided to strike to stop this undercutting. Viking began legal proceedings and the European Court of Justice ruled that the company’s “freedom of establishment” took precedence over the Finnish workers’ right to strike, a ruling which, especially since being enshrined in the Lisbon Treaty, British unions now have no choice but to flout. Reform is out of the question.
Also up for privatisation, putting security and thousands of jobs at risk, is the Royal Fleet Auxiliary – the navy’s lifeline delivering fuel, food stores and ammunition. Under pressure from the Treasury (itself obedient to the European Union), the MoD would lose direct control of the most essential element of the Royal Navy’s support structure. This is despite the fact that just two years ago a review concluded that the service was first-rate and that there was no need to review it again until 2020.