Sailor shortfall '˜risks Brexit success'

Last year the UK exported goods and services worth £512 billion. However, the UK ranks 20th in the global rankings of ship registrations with just 0.8 per cent of the world’s total tonnage and is in danger of losing its reputation as a global maritime leader, maritime trade union Nautilus International has warned.

At the start of its annual conference in Cardiff today, the union will launch a 10-point “charter for jobs” aimed at improving work and education opportunities for seafarers, whose numbers have taken a hammering in recent years. Without a UK shipping industry, it warns, any negotiated Brexit deal could become redundant.

General Secretary Mark Dickinson said: “Ninety-five per cent of all our goods are brought to us by ship.

“Without our own shipping industry, we would become dangerously dependent on the fleets of other nations for the supply of critical goods, including food, oil and gas for heating, and even military equipment.

“Those countries would then have the power to hold us to ransom by controlling the volume and price of goods entering or leaving UK ports through the manipulation of shipping rates or ocean carrier services, a hostile strategy known as ‘sea strangulation’.

“Now, with the UK referendum outcome to leave the European Union, we have a unique opportunity to set ambitious goals for the protection and future of the country’s maritime industries.

“Our ten point Charter for Jobs must be at the forefront of any strategy or manifesto to promote the UK’s maritime sector and ensure the delivery of decent work and training opportunities for our seafarers.”

The number of seafarers employed in the UK has fallen 75 per cent in the last 30 years to around 23,000. Thousands of jobs have been lost in recent years as a result of the North Sea oil downturn.

The charter calls for the national minimum wage to be applied to all vessels in UK waters and 100 per cent financial support to be provided cover the cost of training UK-resident seafarers to avoid a serious skills shortage in future.

It also calls for policies which maximise job opportunities for British seafarers, especially in passenger and freight ferry services, offshore windfarms and offshore oil and gas exploration and decommissioning. Every job on a ship supports around 50 on land, including lucrative industry service businesses such as ship brokering, finance and insurance.

Mr Dickinson added: “Those who campaigned to leave the EU made big promises about the future and the opportunities Brexit would bring to British workers. For that to become reality, we’re faced with renegotiating dozens of trade deals with our neighbours and seeking new deals with countries as far afield as Australia.

“Without shipping those trade deals simply won’t deliver.

“In 1987 the Transport Committee reported on the catastrophic decline of UK seafarer numbers, saying ‘the time for action has arrived’. Almost 30 years later and the continued decline since then means action is now long overdue.”

The union represents 22,000 maritime professionals, from ship masters, through pilots to seafarers in the oil and gas industry and shore-based staff.