Seafarers’ Wages Bill

July 2022 Update: The BPA briefing for second reading in the House of Lords is available here.

The BPA has responded to the publication of the Seafarers’ Wages Bill, introduced to the House of Lords on 6 July 2022.

Whilst we sympathise with the government’s predicament, enforcing the minimum wage rules is not an area where ports have competency and there could be unwanted conflicts with shipping operators. In our view this should really be a job for the UK government. Also the shipping industry have suggested the issue surrounds rostering and not minimum wage so we’re not sure if this will do anything other than become a burden for port and shipping operators.

We need more to time to discuss what other options are available to the government. It’s unfortunate that in the post Brexit era where the government has been talking up deregulation, if these proposals are not properly considered they could actually create more bureaucracy for UK ports.

Richard Ballantyne, Chief Executive, British Ports Association