Offshore Industry: Redundancies

(asked on 18th April 2016) - View Source

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will take steps to prevent redundancies of British crews and their replacement with cheaper foreign crews in the offshore supply sector.


Answered by
Robert Goodwill Portrait
Robert Goodwill
This question was answered on 25th April 2016

International maritime law recognises that the legislation of the flag state is normally applied onboard a vessel and therefore the UK Government is unable to insist its legislation (including employment legislation) is applied on non-UK registered vessels.

However rules on redundancy are quite clearly defined in UK legislation and a UK seafarer, working on a UK registered vessel, would be protected by the legislation even where the vessel operates in international waters. If it is believed that this legislation has been circumvented then there is potentially grounds for unfair dismissal and, if necessary, this can be pursued through an employment tribunal.

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