Belfast Self Employment

January 15th, 2007 by JCB
Posted in Articles, Technical and Training

BELFAST SELF EMPLOYMENT

Most UKMPA conference attendees will know that the situation in Belfast has been somewhat turbulent over the past three or four years. However on the 1^st of December 2006 the guns went quiet and in partnership with the Belfast Harbour Commissioners we signed contracts to outsource the pilotage to ourselves within the Belfast Lough. This was a far from predictable outcome to our struggle. Our initial thrust was for a pay and conditions review to bring us in line with the UK pilots as a whole. Our research on the matter, we believed, showed us as poor relatives to most ports of similar standing. As employees we therefore set about addressing this imbalance. We fought for two years to establish the right to have the appropriate Trade Union recognition. That was a battle in itself and requires a whole tale of its own but suffice to say we achieved this eventually. Our new union representative, Maurice Cunningham T&GWU, then set about the formal procedures to achieve our aims. I shall not go into the gory details surrounding our encounters with our employers but they were frequent and always hard fought. As things deteriorated, attitudes hardened and bit by bit our goals shifted. Eventually our focus shifted from improved employment terms towards a desire to disassociate completely from our current position as employees encased within a management structure.

It was at this low point that our colleagues from the Liverpool Pilots allowed Dave Devey and Terry Crowe, representing the UKMPA, to come over and discuss our situation. They espoused the theory of self-employment and detailed how this had been achieved in Liverpool. The financial benefits combined with the ability to work “with” the Commissioners for a mutual benefit seemed very attractive but very distant considering the current relationship. However after the first ever complete meeting of the Belfast Pilots unanimous agreement was reached to investigate the possibilty of selfemployment based on the Liverpool model. Immediately the mood changed at the negotiating table. Middle managers and Human Resource folk were replaced by Chief Executives and Port Managers. Industrial action and job cuts were replaced by tea, biscuits and handshakes. I cannot say we didn’t have disagreements along the way but with Maurice and Dave’s leadership our self-employment dream was achieved at the Board Room on December 1^st and sealed with a bottle of Bollinger. We are six weeks into our new contract and “touch wood” all is working well.

On behalf of the newly formed Belfast Lough Pilotage Service Ltd I would like to thank the UKMPA, in conjunction with the T&GWU, for their assistance over the past few years. To those who feel the organisation lacks purpose or is merely a talking shop I can confirm that that without their intervention our situation would have resulted in a less than satisfactory outcome for ourselves and possibly for pilotage as a whole. It was only with the vital information volunteered from our UKMPA colleagues nationwide that we were able to “compete” satisfactorily at the negotiating table and in doing so achieve a situation to the mutual benefit of all in Belfast. Sincere thanks to you all.

Captain Liam Magee, Chairman

Belfast Lough Pilotage Services Ltd