Concern over seafarers' jobs

An increase in the number of seafarers in the Merchant Navy masks a troubling reality.

The total number of UK seafarers active at sea in the middle of last year was 23,380, up 2% compared to 2014, according to Department of Transport statistics.

It includes 10,930 certificated UK officers, almost unchanged from the previous year.

The number of cadets in training remained at the same level of 2000.

There were 11,230 non-UK nationals with valid tickets working on UK flagged ships.

Overall, jobs for ratings seems to show marked growth. But behind the headline 5% increase, there are 13% less engine ratings while deck personnel numbers crept up by just 1%. The rise - the first since 2011 - is almost entirely confined to the catering and onboard services departments - mainly on cruise liners - where insecure employment contracts such as zero hours are common.

Concern over seafarers' jobs

8 February 2016

Neither do the figures - calculated to last summer - wholly reflect the impact of the oil price collapse which has led to reduced work for oil tankers and severe challenges in the North Sea and worldwide offshore supply vessel industries.

Merchant Navy organisations called on the UK government to invest more in training to avoid recruiting overseas personnel to fill jobs at sea.

Seafarers' union RMT warned: "If this trend continues, the UK will have no deck and engine ratings by the end of the decade and the UK will lose the capacity to operate all classes of ship, damaging the skills base, as well as harming the UK’s economic and national security."

RMT's national secretary Steve Todd said: "Government needs to get its finger out and compel industry to use the tonnage tax scheme and new maritime apprenticeships to sign up the next generation of UK ratings in deck, engine, catering and onboard services."

Glenys Jackson, head of the Merchant Navy Training Board said: “Faced with an aging demographic – with over half of UK officers aged over 41 – we must ensure that the UK is able to address the inevitable shortage of seafarers or face the reality of a missing generation of UK seafarers as other nationalities fill this shortfall."

Guy Platten, chief executive of the UK Chamber of Shipping said: “It is vital for the future of UK Shipping that the number of UK seafarers increase to meet the demands of the global industry as the volume of sea trade is set to increase and with highly respected training and safety standards the UK is well-placed to meet these demands.

“Whilst these figures seem to indicate a nascent recovery in the number of active UK seafarers, we must not be blind to the challenges that our industry faces.