Merchant seafarers are presently only covered by the minimum wage while employed on a UK-registered vessel serving in UK 'internal waters', which effectively excludes most ratings from minimum-wage protection.

'Internal waters' are interpreted by the government only as river estuaries and the straits between the mainland and islands just off the coast, although the UK has jurisdiction over 'territorial waters' 12 miles offshore.

"It is an absolute disgrace that even UK-registered vessels, benefiting from the millions handed out in Tonnage Tax relief, can pay wages below the UK national minimum wage while in UK waters," RMT general secretary Bob Crow said today.

"Even with the welcome increase announced today the minimum wage is far too low, yet UK employers are sticking two fingers up even at that sum and routinely paying seafarers as little as £2 an hour.
"Foreign nationals on UK ships are already discriminated against through an outrageous exemption from the 1976 Race Relations Act which allows bosses to pay super-exploitative wages - a loophole the government has promised, yet so far failed, to fix.

"Allowing ship-owners to duck the minimum wage as well amounts to a blank cheque for exploitation.
"At the very least the government should change its interpretation of 'internal waters' to include all UK territorial waters, so that at least seafarers working on UK-registered vessels qualify for the minimum wage.

"Far better that all vessels, regardless of the flag they fly, should be bound by UK employment law while they are in UK waters

"Better still that governments work together to find ways of ensuring that maritime employers can no longer avoid observing minimum employment standards just because their workplaces happen to float on water," Bob Crow said.