Displaying items by tag: Support UK Gov

1st April 2022

Minister for Transport Eamon Ryan Will Support UK Move to Force Minimum Wage on Ferries

Department of Transport considering British measures in response to P&O mass sacking. Above a protestor takes part in a demonstration against the dismissal of P&O workers at the Port of Liverpool from where Afloat adds the operator has a route to Dublin Port, albeit not working to full capacity as one ferry, Norbay remains tied up at the Merseyside port.

The Minister for Transport, Eamon Ryan has said he would support any new measures taken by the UK government to raise wages on Irish Sea ferries in response to the P&O controversy.

British transport secretary Grant Shapps has signalled that he wants to create “minimum wage corridors” between the UK and its main trading partners Ireland, France and Denmark to overhaul international maritime law so that ferry operators pay better wages to crew members.

His plans come in response to P&O’s mass sacking of 800 crew members without consultation, replacing them with agency staff paid about 40 per cent less than the UK minimum wage.

Asked whether the Government would support Mr Shapps’s proposals on Irish Sea routes, Mr Ryan said: “What happened in P&O Ferries in my mind was outrageous in terms of the shift towards cheaper wages as a solution to problems we have in the energy and transport sector.” He added “If the UK government was looking at a more just approach to wage levels in that sector, I would be supportive,”

A spokeswoman for the Minister confirmed that Mr Shapps had written to Mr Ryan about extending employee rights for seafarers with regard to the national minimum wage.

More from The Irish Times on response from this side of the Irish Sea over the ongoing ferry dispute.

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About the 29er Skiff Dinghy

The 29er is a one-design double-handed, single trapeze skiff for youth sailors.

There is an active class in Ireland, just one of the 38-countries from across all continents now racing the high-performance skiff.

The 29er is one of the latest dinghy classes to arrive in Ireland and has a 50/50 split between boys and girls.

The class like to describe the boat as "The most popular skiff for sailors who want to go fast!".

Derived from the Olympic class 49er class and designed by Julian Bethwaite the 29er was first produced in 1998.

Two sailors sail the 29er, one on trapeze.

The 6.25-metre high rig features a fractional asymmetrical spinnaker; a self-tacking jib decreases the workload of the crew, making manoeuvres more efficient and freeing the crew to take the mainsheet upwind and on two-sail reaches.

The 15.00 m2 spinnaker rigging set-up challenges crews to be fit and coordinated, and manoeuvres in the boat require athleticism due to its lack of inherent stability and the high speed with which the fully battened mainsail and jib power up.

The 74kg weight hull is constructed of fibreglass-reinforced polyester in a foam sandwich layout.

The fully battened mainsail and jib are made from a transparent Mylar laminate with orange or red Dacron trimming, while the spinnaker is manufactured from ripstop Nylon.

The mast is in three parts - an aluminium bottom and middle section, with a polyester-fibreglass composite tip to increase mast bend and decrease both overall weights, and the capsizing moment a heavy mast tip can generate. Foils are aluminium or fibreglass.

About the ILCA/Laser Dinghy

The ILCA, formerly known as the Laser, is the most produced boat in the world, with 220,000 units built since 1971.

It's easy to see why the single-handed dinghy has won the title of the most widely distributed boat of all time.

The Laser is a one-design dinghy, the hulls being identical but three rigs that can be used according to the size and weight of the sailor.

The class is international, with sailors from 120 countries. The boat has also been an Olympic class since 1996, being both the men's and women's singlehanded dinghy.

Three rigs are recognised by the International Laser Class Association (ILCA):

ILCA 4: sail of 4.70m2

ILCA 6: sail of 5.76 m2

ILCA 7: sail of 7.06 m2