Red Ensign and British jobs at risk
The following letter was sent to, and featured widely in, the national press on Thursday 1 July 2010:
Dear Sir (addressed to the newspaper Editor)
At a time when ordinary people are bearing the brunt of the national deficit, the Government should be keeping its promise to keep Britain ‘open for business’. We write in dismay therefore that it appears on the verge of encouraging shipping companies to take their business elsewhere.
British shipping is the UK’s third largest services earner, contributing £10bn to GDP and supporting 150,000 British jobs across the country. Yet as a result of a seemingly obscure regulation arising from the Equality Act, many major companies will have little choice but to re-register their ships away from the UK.
In common with operators of ships on other major registries, these companies are currently able to pay seafarers resident abroad at levels that are determined internationally and are related to those of highly-skilled professionals in their home countries. What is being proposed would compel UK-flag operators to pay UK rates to these seafarers – even though they do not incur their living costs here and may never even set foot on British soil. The resulting increase in costs will put our UK operations under intolerable pressure not felt by our competitors in other countries.
Long-term British jobs are at risk. We, the undersigned, urge the Prime Minister to help the UK trade its way back into prosperity and avoid the collapse of a national success story that is vital to our economy and strategic capability.
Jan Kopernicki, Vice President Shipping, Shell International Trading and Shipping Company Limited and President Chamber of Shipping
David Dingle CBE, CEO, Carnival UK
Nigel Pusey, CEO, The Maersk Company
Michael Parker, Chairman, CMA CGM (UK) Holdings Ltd
Captain John Garner, Fleet Director, P&O Ferries Ltd
Robert Åkerlund, Director, Stena Line Group
Max Peng, President, Evergreen Marine (UK) Limited
Alan Bekhor, CEO, British Marine plc
Perry Kennedy, MD, Gulf Offshore NS Ltd
John Denholm, Chairman, J&J Denholm
Tim Harris CBE, Chairman, James Fisher & Sons plc