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THECHAMBEROFSHIPPINGANNUALREVIEW2011–2012


The Chamber achieved a positive outcome with its campaign to minimise harm to the UK register caused by changes to differential pay laws. Meanwhile, tireless lobbying to preserve funding for the Support for Maritime Training scheme also resulted in a victory for the industry.


Equality Act 2010 The UK shipping industry held its breath at the beginning of 2011, as the European Commission issued a ‘reasoned opinion’ to the government that Section 9 of the Race Relations Act 1976 was in breach of European treaty articles. This had permitted lower rates of pay for seafarers recruited abroad to work on UK-registered ships than for those hired in the UK, but was considered to discriminate against nationals of other EU member states. Following the announcement, Section 9 was replaced with a measure outlawing differential pay rates for seafarers who were nationals of the European Economic Area (EEA) and so-called designated states with special agreements with the EU. The Chamber focused on achieving an outcome


that complied with EU law, while minimising the inevitable detrimental effects on the UK register should operators be required to pay UK rates for all their crew members, regardless of their country of residence. We were encouraged when the Shipping Minister, Mike Penning MP, announced that he would do no more than the absolute minimum necessary to comply with EU law, so that as many UK fl ag ships as possible could remain on the register. The Equality Act 2010 (Work on Ships and


Hovercraft) Regulations 2011 took effect on 1 August. A Chamber seminar in June briefed members on their content and helped identify changes that companies might need to make to their existing employment practices in order not to fall foul of the new rules. By the end of the year, the number of companies announcing a need to re-register their ships away from the UK was much lower than had initially been feared. This represents a major success for the Chamber’s lobbying over an extended period of time, in the face of opposition from the European Commission, the trade unions and from several members of parliament who were vocal in their support for far-reaching measures to outlaw discrimination. The original proposals, if introduced in


full, would have caused extensive damage to the UK fl eet and reversed many of the hard-won gains since the introduction of the tonnage tax.


THE NUMBER OF


COMPANIES ANNOUNCING A NEED TO RE- REGISTER THEIR SHIPS AWAY FROM THE UK WAS MUCH LOWER THAN HAD INITIALLY BEEN FEARED


Seafarer training support Late in 2010, it was announced that the government would reduce the amount of funding provided under the Support for Maritime Training (SMarT) scheme, pending a review of the scheme in 2011. Deloitte and Oxford Economics were commissioned to look into the future demand for UK seafarers, while the Department for Transport (DfT) established a review panel to consider the evidence from the study and make recommendations to the Shipping Minister. The Chamber secretariat and several member


companies were invited to a workshop hosted by Deloitte in September, in which the Merchant Navy Training Board, DfT, the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) and the maritime colleges also participated. The Chamber presented a large amount of evidence indicating the value of SMarT funding. In particular, it noted that 96 per cent of those UK offi cers responding to an MCA survey who completed their training in 2010 had obtained


EMPLOYMENT 17


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