Member

While we appreciate the intention behind the amendment, as drafted it is very broad and would apply a wide but uncertain range of rights on to seafarers with varying levels of connection to Great Britain, spanning across a significant number of different pieces of legislation. Accepting the amendment without undertaking a proper review of the consequences of this across all the relevant legislation would run the risk of unintended consequences for seafarers. It could not only disapply certain rights from seafarers who currently receive them but force UK employment protections on those who wish to be covered by a different jurisdiction, depending on the interpretation of the courts. Applying the “frequency of port calls” test to all statutory rights is not the same as applying it to the collective redundancy measure, on which the amendment is based, or the Seafarers Wages Act, which is also based on port calls. Neither of these measures confer any individual rights on to seafarers, and the mechanism was carefully designed to ensure compliance of these specific measures with international law.