ETF and ITF welcome the bilateral France – UK agreement over voluntary seafarer employment and welfare standards. Yet, they call together for the adoption of mandatory seafarer employment standards on European shipping routes, underpinned by sectoral collective bargaining rights.

A year after P&O Ferries illegally sacked almost 800 UK seafarers, European and global unions call for the UK Prime Minister to crack down on corporations who break the law and violate the labour rights of British workers.

ETF deplores P&O Ferries’ proposal to make 1,100 redundancies amongst key workers in Dover, Hull, Liverpool, Cairnryan and Larne including over 900 UK seafarers. We believe that any public funding received by shipping companies to address the economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic should be conditional on the protection of local employment and the Collective Bargaining Agreements with the ETF’s UK affiliates for the long term.