This petition was submitted during the 2019-2024 parliament

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Petition Require all ships operating out of UK ports to apply UK employment law

Protect British Seafarers ensuring (ferry) operators cannot circumvent protections under UK employment law by exploiting loopholes. This law should apply to all regular services operating from UK ports. Operation and ownership of critical port facilities should require a "fit and proper" test.

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Currently, Ferry Operators and similar service providers operating regular scheduled services from UK ports can undermine or evade protection under UK employment law such as the minimum wage and unfair dismissal by reflagging their ships. Legislation should stop this. Any operator or owner of critical UK port facilities should be barred from such activities in UK if they can not show that they are 'Fit & Proper' and comply with UK laws.

This petition is closed This petition ran for 6 months

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Government announces pay protection reforms for Seafarers

As part of the Queen's Speech on Tuesday 10th May, the Government announced plans to introduce reforms so that seafarers regularly entering UK ports are paid at least the equivalent of the UK national minimum wage.

Read more about the Government's announcement: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/seafarer-minimum-wage-laws-set-sail

The Government's proposals include:

  • Ensuring operators of vessels with frequent scheduled services are paying their seafarers a fair wage whilst in the UK territory

  • Empowering ports to authorise surcharges to ferry operators, and ultimately to suspend operators from accessing the port, if they are not paying the equivalent of the UK minimum wage

  • Allowing for legal sanctions to be used against operators who provide false or incomplete information, or do not comply with the new measures.

The Government has said it intends to introduce a new set of laws to implement these measures - the Harbours (Seafarers’ Remuneration) Bill. These will be introduced in the new Parliamentary session which has new begun.

You can find out more about this Bill, and other planned new laws announced in this year's Queen's Speech, here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/queens-speech-2022-background-briefing-notes

What is the Queen's Speech?

The Queen's Speech is the speech that the Queen reads out in the House of Lords Chamber on the occasion of the State Opening of Parliament. This year the speech was read by the Prince of Wales, on the Queen's behalf.

The speech is written by the Government and sets out the programme of Bills - new laws, and changes to existing laws - that the Government intends to put forward in this new Parliamentary session. A session of Parliament begins with the State Opening of Parliament and usually lasts around one year.

Once the Government puts forward a Bill in Parliament, Parliament then debates the Government's proposal and decides whether to adopt the changes to the law set out in the Bill.