Select Committee on Transport Minutes of Evidence


Examination of Witnesses (Questions 95-99)

23 JUNE 2004

MR BRIAN ORRELL, MR MARK DICKINSON, MR ANDREW LININGTON, MR BOB CROW AND MR STEVE TODD

  Q95 Chairman: Good afternoon, gentlemen. It is always nice to have people from the shipping industry. It proves to me conclusively what an equal opportunities group you are. Would you like to identify yourselves for the record, please, starting with my left.

  Mr Todd: Steve Todd, RMT National Secretary.

  Mr Crow: Bob Crow, General Secretary, RMT.

  Mr Orrell: Brian Orrell, General Secretary, NUMAST.

  Mr Dickinson: Mark Dickinson, Assistant General Secretary, NUMAST.

  Mr Linington: Andrew Linington, Head of Communications, NUMAST.

  Q96 Chairman: Thank you very much. Did either of you gentlemen want to say something before you begin?

  Mr Orrell: Yes, I would, if I may. We first of all would like to thank the Committee for holding the inquiry. It is much needed. NUMAST values the work of the Committee, and indeed we believe that its report in 1999 was a very significant contribution to the introduction of the Government's shipping policy. Indeed, this Government has, more than many others, introduced a shipping policy of some coherence for the industry. The tonnage tax actually was described as a jewel in the crown at the time and with the other aspects of the Government's policy it was intended to reverse the decline of our fleet and regenerate training and employment of seafarers. NUMAST is more than worried that the objectives have not been achieved as we had hoped. Whilst ships have increased in number, increases in cadet training have been more than disappointing. UK officer employment has declined by 14% and that is just not from retirement, from an ageing population, it is through job losses and redundancies. There has been a steady increase of foreign officers used and we believe that the Government through the MCA has assisted this by issuing certificates of equivalent competency like confetti over the period. NUMAST believes that the Government must follow through its initiatives and objectives and actually provide what we would regard as a modest and pragmatic officer employment linked to the tonnage tax. We believe that this should be obligatory through regulations or through collective bargaining agreements and we have submitted a proposal on this to the Secretary of State for Transport. We believe the Government should also accept and discharge a responsibility for the social conditions on board, and by that I mean the terms and conditions of employment and the conditions of work. NUMAST is quite tired of receiving the comment from Government ministers that the Government does not involve itself in the decisions on who crews its ships and we believe that is a green light for the foreign officers that are increasing on our ships.

  Q97 Chairman: That is quite helpful. Do you have any idea of the number of UK officers and ratings that would be required for ship and shore work?

  Mr Orrell: Well, we know what the bank of officers is now and we know what we will need to replace that bank. We do not know how many ships you will need and how many officers you will need.

  Q98 Chairman: No, I am thinking particularly of the officers and the ratings.

  Mr Orrell: With the officers, when we started off this exercise we worked on the basis that to replace the officer bank that we had back in 1998 we would need 1,250 cadets per year. That would be the number of cadets that would flow through into officers and then flow ashore into the maritime skills where currently there is a demand for 132,000 such people, 12% of which are preferred officers and 6.5% ashore are essential for the officers. That has changed through the years since. Because of the reducing officer population obviously the number of people needed to replace them goes down. It currently stands, I think, from the latest report of London Metropolitan University at 1,000 cadets that we need per year to replace that bank of officers.

  Q99 Chairman: Are there differences in the needs for officers and ratings?

  Mr Orrell: I think Mr Crow can probably speak on the ratings.

  Mr Crow: Yes, there is, Chairman. In 1980 there were 30,000 ratings and according to a report by the Cardiff University the UK's economy requirements for people with experience of working at sea in 2003 estimated there was a total of 15,700 jobs ashore, which employs a third of ex-seafarers and the reason they have commented, Chairman, is that in our report we have no doubt whatsoever that the tonnage tax has been beneficial to the shipowners and there is no argument at all that there are more ships using British ports now in the last 20 years than ever before. The fact is that it has not produced any ratings jobs whatsoever.


 
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