I had more or less given up writing about what might be called “maritime news” but this P&O thing might be worth discussing in the broader context of skill, qualifications and competence.
We should maybe go back to the days of Margaret Thatcher who discarded any possible protection for the British maritime sector and substituted a sort of marine free for all, where ships of any flag could operate in UK waters and British ships could be crewed by anyone of any nationality as long as their qualifications were appropriate.
The P&O ferry Pride of Kent in Dover.
In this we should consider what is actually required of seafarers of any nationality since the means of obtaining the required qualifications are similar, although not identical. Focusing on the deck officer qualifications, the formal qualifications provide a basic level of competence to allow people to carry out watch keeping duties, undertaking navigation, maintaining the stability of the vessel and dealing with emergencies. Ship handling, the activity of manoeuvring vessels alongside, with or without tugs is probably limited to what is required to place a single screw vessel alongside a quay.
We, and I still think of myself as a seafarer, even after many years of retirement, have to learn, on the hoof, whatever special skills may be required to operate different types of ship. I learnt how to operate offshore craft as a young man, without any formal training from my owners, who expected that somehow we would know how to do the job, even though in the early days they did not have much idea themselves as to what was to be done or how to do it. Other types of ship have special requirements as to how the cargo is to be looked after, the knowledge of how to do it being passed from one person to another. Freezer and chilled cargoes require special care. Bananas for instance are loaded green and an enzyme injected into the holds during passage to ripen them. If there are a lot of green bananas in the shops it means that someone on a banana boat has not done the job very well.
So, moving on to these P&O ferries, which are the rump of a vast shipping company, a conglomerate which in the 1950s dominated trade in most of the oceans of the world. At this point it may be worth saying that P&O Cruises are nothing to do with P&O Ferries, and have been at some pains to ensure that we are aware that there is no relationship between the two. These ferries are large complex ships which have been operated successfully by British crews for many years, many employees gradually moving on from one ship to another, as newbuildings entered service, taking on the new problems which might arise, and developing skills to deal with the unavoidable difficulties.
From the simplest viewpoint somehow these craft have to make it back and forth across the busy waterways round the UK successfully, without colliding with other vessels or running aground, while maintaining the required operational speed, and not catching fire. And at either end of the voyage these extremely large craft have to be manoeuvred onto the linkspans successfully, sometimes in less than ideal weather conditions, then unloaded and loaded. It takes a skilled and experienced team of mariners to achieve this.
So, bearing all this in mind, despite any misgivings anyone might have had (did anyone in the company have any? The MD is a former brewery manager and none of the directors had any length of service under their belts) all of the 800 sea staff manning eight of the company ships were sacked on March 17th 2022.
The ships probably were:
Pride of Canterbury. 30,000 GRT Limassol Dover-Calais
Pride of Kent. 30,000 GRT Limassol Dover -Calais
Spirit of Britain 49,000 GRT Limassol Dover- Calais
Spirit of France 49,000 GRT Limassol Dover- Calais
Pride of Hull 60,000 GRT Nassau Hull- Rotterdam
Pride of Rotterdam 60,000 GRT Rotterdam Hull – Rotterdam
European Highlander 21,000 GRT Nassau Cairnryan-Larne
European Causeway 21,000 GRT Nassau Cairnryan- Larne
There are further freight ferries listed on some internet sites, but it is probable that the 800 personnel were working on the eight ships listed here. (GRT Gross Registered Tonnage – a measurement of space, not weight)
What I wrote back on 20th March has become little more than an introduction to what in May, continues to rumble on. I’ll remind you that the initial notice was given to the 800 crew members on 17th March and apparently all took up the offer of redundancy money which was to cost the ferry company £37 million.
Immediately after the event the BBC was able to talk to one or two of those who had been amongst the replacement crew, who had thought they were joining a new ship. The new crew were put up in a hotel overnight and then bussed to the ships together with numbers of ex-military security staff, whose job had been apparently to guard the Duty Free Shops and maybe throw off those reluctant to leave. Even now we don’t know whether anyone was thrown off, although it was reported that some had sat in.
In the days which followed the new crews were apparently trained in the operation of the ships, the company estimated that this would take about 10 days, but when it was intended that the schedules be resumed the MCA descended on them and banned some of them from sailing until a variety of problems were resolved.
The initial flurry of events created a lot of interest, and it was suggested that the company had broken employment law, causing ministers to become involved, but later discussions suggested that maybe they did not break the law after all. Since none of the ships are registered in UK all that had to be done was those governments informed by letter that action was to be taken. Something we don’t actually know is whether the crew who were sacked were being employed directly by P&O Ferries, or whether they were assigned by a crewing agency, as is the case with many companies, the advantage of which is to avoid employers National Insurance payments. We should also possibly remember that, traditionally, seamen were employed only for the duration of a voyage, signing on at the start of it, and signing off when the ship returned to its home port. Although it is difficult to see how such arrangements could be applied today.
But moving on, the managing director of P&O Ferries, whose background is actually in the brewing industry, met with the House of Commons Transport Select Committee and was suitably grilled. He admitted he had broken the law (even though we have now established that he might not have), but said that was the only option open to the company and so there was nothing else they could have done. This was apparently on the background of a £100 million loss during the last year. DP World, had paid £322 million just over three years ago for the company, and at the time it must have seemed like something of a bargain, but Brexit gave it problems and Covid almost killed the business. That is without considering the money owed by the company to the Merchant Navy Ratings Pension Fund, apparently £146 million, although surely this must have been taken into account as part of the purchase price. I think they still owe it by the way.
By 29th March in a continuing furore two of the company ships were still being detained by the Marine and Coastguard Agency and a general statement about the status of one of them, the European Causeway became available to the general public. To be honest many of the failings seem to have been endemic during the ship‘s original crew operation, but one, the failings relating to emergency drills related directly to the new crew. Later it was passed for work but made the news again when it broke down on passage and had to be rescued by a tug.
In the third week in April two ITF inspectors were called to one of the ships by crew members, initially being refused access by the port, but eventually making it to the Spirit of Britain where new crew members were joining with 17 week contracts although the existing new crew had contracts for four or eight weeks. The call had really been because it seemed that the company were attempting to reduce the wages of those already on board, however they have since denied this and have pointed out that, there has just been an adjustment to the manner in which payment will be made, but the result will be the same. The inspectors spoke with Hondurans who had been issued with contracts where they were paid a basic of £748 a month, plus overtime and bonus. This salary is of course less than the UK minimum wage, which has resulted in more government intervention although I think this has been unsuccessful.
The inspectors found that the new crew on the Spirit of Britain was made up of the following nationalities: British, Polish, Romanian, Croatian, Russian, Latvian, Ukrainian. Georgian, Indian, Honduran, German, Bulgarian and Mauritian.
The crews had been supplied by International Ferry Management which is based in Malta and has one director who took up the position on February 11th. It has been reported that P&O Ferries have placed an internet advertisement offering catering jobs on the ferries, suggesting a work rest rotation of 12 hours on, 12 hours off, the time off spent in a hotel in Calais, or other French port.
On 21st April two of the company ships were still prevented from sailing by the MCA due to safety issues. The result of the Pride of Canterbury and Spirit of France being out of service has resulted in trucks backing up for many miles the M20 to Dover. However it was announced on 22nd April that the Dover Calais service would resume in full on 27th. It is estimated that up to now, the total cost of the recrewing measures have been £100 million.
The business of employing third world crews in order to save money has been part of the whole business of shipping for many years. Back in the days of sailing ships the crews would often be paid off when the ship arrived at its destination, wherever that was in the world, and a new crew picked up when it was ready to leave. This is a situation which the British 1894 Merchant Shipping Act (in place until 1970) attempted to address, making ship’s masters responsible for sailors abandoned abroad. However, even the P&O when it was a traditional international shipping company, used to use Indian crews, the deck crew coming from Bombay and the engine crews from Calcutta. Other British shipping companies used Chinese crews from Hong Kong. These guys would probably stay on the ship for a year and when it came time for them to go home they were redelivered to their home port. Although they were paid less than European seafarers there were more of them and of course back home they were well off.
I’m still not quite sure whether this is morally deplorable. In the 1990s I sailed with a Filipino crew (great guys by the way) and the Leading Hand was making enough money, he said, to live in some luxury back home and put his younger sister through teacher’s training college. And on my ship there were only two nationalities. British and Filipino. I get the feeling, although I have no direct knowledge, that a ship’s crew made up of 13 nationalities must have operational difficulties.
So there we are. Today, 10th May, it has all gone quiet although the Pride of Canterbury and the Spirit of France are still detained, and at the fourth attempt the Pride of Kent has passed its safety inspection.
But what else? Have tourists, for instance, responded to the union’s request that the P&O be boycotted? In three months will anyone care, or has the cost of this management intervention been such that, even with the economies initiated, the company will go down anyway? Update: on 11th May the Uk government announced that at the next parliamentary session the ‘The Harbours (Seafarers Remuneration) Bill” will be enacted requiring all vessels regularly trading with Uk to pay their seafarers at least the UK Minimum Wage. There is to be consultation which will go on until the end of the first week in June, when they will get on with the job.
The Transport Secretary Grant Shaps said, ‘we will stop at nothing to make sure seafarers in UK ports are being paid fairly.’
Of course it only takes a moments thought to see that any such law is faced with some difficulties. Vessels regularly visiting UK ports are not limited to ferries, there are offshore vessels and fishing boats. And while it seems appropriate for the minimum wage to be paid to, for instance, waiters with little or no marine experience, what about the more skilled staff. They might think that being paid the same as waiters was a bit beneath them.
Looking back at this event from 2023 what has happened? Despite brave words from the government they find that they are hamstrung by international marine regulations, and the requirements of the registries under which the ships operate. There is nothing in UK which prevents foreign ships from operating round our coastlines, with crews of whatever nationality are chosen. Unlike USA, Australia and Canada (that I know about). And actually nothing prevents the owners of foreign flag ships from determining whatever conditions for the crews that they like - regardless of what Grant Shaps said. If we, the British public stopped using the ferries then that would be different.
The P&O Ferries event is ongoing. Now in September 2023 the government seems to have done nothing. Well, those of us who know how flags and crewing stuff works wonder how they could, without actually changing the law. And now Nautilus has reported that further changes have been made to the crewing arrangements, which the management can do. They hold all the cards. It is reported that the crews have been informed that the company is employing crews from a different crewing agency in Malta, and that if they don't change to this agency their further employment will be in doubt. They have also been told that salaries are being reviewed. Oh dear!
October 2024 Update!!!
Over the weekend (12/13 October 2024) there has been a bit of a tiff amongst those in charge of the Labour Government. Louise Haigh, the Secretary of State for Transport called P&O Ferries something like "duplicious bastards" no, sorry, "rogue operators" for sacking and rehiring their crews and called for them to be boycotted by the general public, and she was supported by Angela Rayner, but both were, in the words of journalists "thrown under a bus" by Sir Kier Starmer. She also said that the new employment regulations will protect ferry crews since the regs will say "Vessel operators planning to dismiss 20 or more employees will first be legally required to notify the UK Government".
DP Ports, the owners of P&O Ferries reposted that the change had been necessary to ensure the survival of the company and that the multi-billion pound investment in the UK ports owned by that company was now in doubt. Over hours the Prime Minister has changed his stance and now supported his Transport Secretary and DP Ports have confirmed that they will continue with their investment. The latter course of action was surely not in doubt, they must have nerves of steel anyway to do what they have done and justify it.
Louise Haigh on the other hand has been photographed on a ship, with a Nautilus official, so good for her. In the event I wonder if the intended change to employment law will actually work out for the ferry company employees. I have experience of working with legislation in the marine field and it is amazing how detailed it has to be to prevent people circumventing it. To see a law which deals with everything, have a look back at the 1894 Merchant Shipping Act, but even that only applied to British registered ships.