Workers Rights News

Britain says it has canceled a contract with P&O Ferries "with immediate effect" in its latest action against the DP World-owned company following its decision to axe hundreds of staff earlier this year.The Home Office (interior ministry) said it was ending its agreement with the firm to provide contingency travel services to "juxtaposed ports" where British staff operate border controls in Belgium and France to check passengers and freight destined for Britain.It comes after P&O Ferries…

Trade unions protested at British ferry ports on Friday after Dubai-owned P&O Ferries abruptly sacked 800 workers via a video message, drawing widespread condemnation and raising the prospect of disruption to key tourist and goods routes.P&O, which is owned by Dubai ports firm DP World, is recovering from a difficult two years when COVID-19 prevented tourists from travelling on its routes between Britain, France, Ireland and elsewhere in northern Europe.P&O said on Thursday it had lost 100 million pounds ($131 million) in the last year and that without changes its business was not sustainable.

Striking dockworkers at Canada's second-biggest port will gradually return to work on Saturday, the Montreal Port Authority (MPA) said, after the federal government passed a law to end the walkout.Late on Friday, the Canadian government passed back-to-work legislation to halt the strike, which workers at the Port of Montreal began on Monday over changes to their work schedules."Our priority now is to plan for the resumption of port operations and to ensure efficient and seamless service…

The International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) has been made aware of a communication sent on 30 May 2018 by the Panama Canal Authority (ACP) to the Union de Capitanes y Oficiales de Cubierta (UCOC) about reducing the tug’s complement to the minimum manning established by the Panama Maritime Authority. The ACP has informed the UCOC that from 1 July 2018 there will be further reductions to the crew with the removal of the additional captain. This position is currently part of the forward tug’s crew since the opening of the new locks in 2016. This decision follows the removal of a deckhand in April 2018, a move that, according to the UCOC, can jeopardise the safety of the tug and its crew because of the nature and risks associated in assisting with manoeuvres inside the new locks.

In October, the PHP Family (Peace Happiness and Prosperity) shipbreaking yard received a Statement of Compliance with the Hong Kong Convention by the Italian classification society RINA. Trade unions in Bangladesh, as well as the Platform’s member Bangladesh Institute for Labour Studies (BILS), are concerned that such a labelling sets a dangerous precedent for the further green-washing of the Chittagong beaching yards. Workers and the environment are not protected as long as ships are broken on the beach, and as long as fundamental labour rights and proper infrastructure are not secured. PHP is run by a renowned business family in Chittagong, who also runs activities in the steel re-rolling and construction industries, and owns TV channels.

Shipbreaking plot no. 54 in Gadani, Pakistan, was sealed off after a massive fire broke out on-board the ship ACES (IMO 8021830), said NGO Shipbreaking Platform. This is the same floating oil production tanker that blew up on 1 November last year – an explosion that caused the death of 31 workers and seriously injured at least another 58 workers. Fortunately, reports seem to indicate that no workers got caught in the flames of yesterday’s fire on the ACES. After having been left untouched and unbroken in the same yard since last year’s catastrophic explosion, the Pakistan Department of Environment gave permission last week for the continued breaking of the ACES.

Trade unions in Jakarta International Container Terminal (SPJICT) will be striking from 3 until 10 August over what they claim as "ruthless attacks to workers’ rights". According to local media, the Federation of Indonesia Ports Union (FPPI) and Jakarta International Container Terminal Union (SP JICT) jointly participate in the strike. The unions say that the focus is on to pension rights and performance bonuses. The unions are protesting for their unpaid 2016 yearly bonus and blaming the corporate allocation for the rental fee has forced the management to delay such bonus disbursement. The terminal management has been pursuing in the course of negotiations over a new collective bargaining agreement.

A union workers' strike next week is expected to disrupt shipping operations at Jakarta's main port, which handles the bulk of international shipments for Southeast Asia's biggest economy, a labour union official said. Around 2,000 union members are expected to go on strike from May 15-20 at the Tanjung Priok port to protest against an affiliate of Hutchinson Ports, which the union says is bad for the country and for workers' rights. "We are going all out in (next week's) strike," said Nova Sofyan Hakim, chairman of the union at PT Jakarta International Container Terminal (JICT), adding that all port operations would be halted during the strike.

Shipping conglomerate A.P. Moller-Maersk said on Monday it was striving to improve workers' rights at shipbreaking yards it uses in India after criticisms of hazardous conditions. The Danish company also expressed regret that a ship it sold this year, the "North Sea Producer", had then been taken to a shipbreaking yard in Bangladesh, after Danish media last week showed workers using precarious rope ladders to climb the hull. Most shipping companies send old ships to shipbreaking yards in India…

French CGT trade union port workers will join a nationwide strike against French labor reforms on Sept. 15, the union said on Monday, a move that could disrupt oil, grains and other commodities shipment at French ports. The hardline CGT union led rolling nationwide strikes against the labor reform between April and June against the reform which they said will curb workers rights and make it easier for companies fire workers. The union has demanded that the law be withdrawn. The rolling strikes had disrupted fuel and other supplies at French ports, provoking panic buying and fuel shortages across the country. Reporting by Valerie Parent

Twelve Pacific Rim countries on Monday reached the most ambitious trade pact in a generation, aiming to liberalize commerce in 40 percent of the world's economy in a deal that faces skepticism from U.S. lawmakers. The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) pact struck in Atlanta after marathon talks could reshape industries, change the cost of products from cheese to cancer treatments and have repercussions for drug companies and automakers. Tired negotiators worked round the clock over the weekend to settle tough issues such as monopoly rights for new biotech drugs.

Thousands of truck drivers went on strike over salary and haulage rates in the eastern Chinese port of Ningbo this week, and a logistics firm said on Friday the industrial action was disrupting operations at the world's sixth busiest port. In a statement on its official microblog account, Ningbo Port Co Ltd said the strike had started over trucking rates but declined to give further details. The company said it was taking measures to ensure that operations at the port, China's third busiest, were not disrupted and to ensure losses were kept to a minimum. Local media reported the strike began at the Beilun area of the port and that it started with a few hundred drivers and escalated on Thursday to a few thousand, who clashed with police.

As the Maritime Labor Convention 2006 (MLC) comes into the force the ITF (International Transport Workers’ Federation) has promised to dedicate all its resources to helping it make real changes to the lives of all seafarers. The ITF has worked alongside shipping organizations, the ILO and governments for over a decade to jointly create and shape the MLC, and is committed to monitoring and assisting its implementation and persuading many more countries to ratify it. ITF president Paddy Crumlin stated…

Maritime recruitment specialist, Spinnaker Consulting has warned shipping firms that they could face legal action if they do not apply UK standards to foreign workers. Overseas workers who spend some working time in the UK qualify for the same employment protection rights as resident UK workers. Writing in the latest issue of Changing Course, Spinnaker's monthly e-mail newsletter, managing director Phil Parry says, "A London employment tribunal ruled last month that foreign workers can claim rights under English employment law if they have spent some of their time working in the UK. The decision arises out of legal changes made in 1999 implementing an EU directive on the posting of workers.