PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Shipping: Minimum Wage (5 June 2014)

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what recent (a) correspondence and (b) discussions he has had with individual employers in the maritime industry about pay rates below the National Minimum Wage (NMW) for seafarers subject to UK National Insurance employed on vessels working from UK ports; and if he will take steps to enforce in the maritime sector his Department's policy on enforcement, prosecutions and naming employers who break the law on the NMW.

Asked by:
John McDonnell (Independent)

The Department is beginning engagement with a range of stakeholders from the maritime industry to fully understand issues surrounding payment of the minimum wage. To date we have met with officials in other jurisdictions as this policy area is affected by legislation outside the UK. We will go on to engage with individual maritime employers and their associations. We will be discussing recruitment models and pay structures as part of this engagement. Following these investigations, we will consider whether further enforcement activity is needed in this sector.

This Government remains committed to the minimum wage and the protection it provides to low paid workers. That is why we have strengthened the enforcement regime by cutting back the criteria for naming and shaming non-compliant employers and have increased the penalty from 50% to 100% of arrears up to £20,000. We are also taking primary legislation to apply a penalty per underpaid worker rather than per non-compliant employer.

Where employers in the maritime industry are found to not be paying the National Minimum Wage that workers are entitled to, we will not hesitate to take action, including recovering arrears owed to workers and penalising employers financially and their reputation by naming and shaming where appropriate.

Workers in the maritime industry who think they have not been paid the correct National Minimum Wage should contact the Pay and Work Rights Helpline on 0800 917 2368.

Answered by:
Jenny Willott (Liberal Democrat)
12 June 2014