2023-07-20 03:31:23
Parliament unanimously adopted a bill to fight against the social dumping of certain ferry companies between Great Britain and France, by guaranteeing a minimum wage and respect for working conditions. After the Senate at the end of June, it is the National Assembly which, in turn, adopted this text unanimously on Wednesday.
With this bill prepared by the Macronist deputy Didier Le Gac (Finistère) and the communist Sébastien Jumel (Seine-Maritime), the parliamentarians intend in particular to defend the French company Brittany Ferries against competition deemed “unfair”. In their sights, the company P&O Ferries and its ships flying the Cypriot flag. This company caused a scandal in Great Britain more than a year ago by dismissing nearly 800 sailors without notice, before hiring low-cost non-EU workers.
Dual sanctions regime
The text aims to establish hierarchical minima for determining the wages of seafarers, regardless of the flag of these passenger-carrying ships. It provides that the duration of rest on land is at least equivalent to the duration of their embarkation. In the event of breaches, the text provides for a dual system of penalties, criminal and administrative, in the form of fines.
“These administrative or criminal sanctions apply to each sailor, they must be multiplied by the number of sailors, it is very dissuasive”, assured the Secretary of State in charge of the Sea Hervé Berville, facing the left and the RN who demanded in vain a ban on docking in a French port for the third offense noted.
The bill also penalizes the admission on board of a foreign sailor who does not have a valid medical fitness certificate. The senators have extended this system to all “seafarers” (all persons, salaried or unsalaried, exercising a professional activity on board).
“The next step is to go to Brussels to convince the European states” to align themselves with this law, underlined the deputy and rapporteur Didier Le Gac.
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