July 15th, 2005 by JCB
Posted in Chairman | No Comments »
Chairman’s Report
We are continuing to give our full support to Kristian Pedersen, SE Wales, during his current situation. He has had the bene.t of legal, UKMPA and T&G support since the .rst internal disciplinary hearing made the decision to dismiss him. An appeal was lodged and regrettably the internal appeal hearing upheld the dismissal. He was accompanied throughout by the T&G representative Alan Mayne and advised by Barrie Youde on a daily basis. The T&G appointed a Mr Robin Williams of Leo Abse in Cardiff to present his case of unfair dismissal to the Industrial Tribunal and this is now proceeding.
In the meantime we are endeavouring to .nd Kristian other employment in pilotage in the United Kingdom and any District that is able to assist in this matter please contact the UKMPA.
Department for Transport
Our regular meetings with the DfT continue. I have raised the subject of the lack of progress with the National Occupational Standards and a question will be asked in the House of Lords. I mentioned that the abuse of PEC’s is a continuing problem. In SE Wales compulsory vessels in a compulsory area are entering and leaving without either an authorised pilot or a PEC holder on board. Belfast Harbour Authority has suggested that the pilots, although employed, may be asked to work from home in order that the Harbour Authority can circumvent the Working Time Regulations. I have asked the Department to look into this.
I am hoping for a meeting with the new Shipping Minister, Dr Steven Ladyman, in the near future. Lord Tony Berkeley is arranging this on our behalf.
The .rst draft of amendments to the 1987 Pilotage Act have been lodged with the DfT and are now being scrutinized by their legal department.
Legal
All contractual work for Wisbech Pilots has been completed to the satisfaction of the pilots. Serious problems have arisen in Belfast. I have met with Maurice Cunningham the T&G of.cer from Belfast and have informed the T&G legal Director of the Situation. It would appear that 5 of the 15 pilots might be made redundant as a result of the pilots no longer manning the VTS. The T&G legal department is monitoring the situation carefully especially the idea of insisting the pilots work from home to circumvent the requirements of the Working Time Regulations. BLL is dealing with the new contract and a PEC issue for the Bristol pilots and is awaiting a new contract being issued to the Belfast pilots. Work has been done on behalf of Inverness and SE Wales.
Please Note: At a meeting on the 11th of July 2005 with Blake Lapthorn Linnell it was agreed that the existing employed and self-employed retainers would apply to ALL PORTS.
Europe
The EMPA 39th AGM was held in Sopot, Poland during the .rst week of June.
The election results were as follows:
President – Juha Tulimaa (Finland)
Senior Vice President
Board members as follows:
Claude Haut (France)
Chris Lefevere (Belgium)
Dieter Bloechl (Germany)
Paco Gayoso Mosquera (Spain)
Themis Daskalakis (Greece)
The new Editor of the EMPA Journal is Roger Allaert from the Belgian river Pilots. Both Gianfranco Gasperinin, President of EMPA and Hein Mehrkens President of IMPA who died recently while in of.ce were remembered with affection.
Gianfranco’s widow and daughter were guests on the last day of the conference and received the EMPA medal on behalf of Gianfranco.
The general meeting agreed to send the completed ETCS (European Pilot Quali.cation) code and guidelines to the Commission in Brussels for their approval.
The GM did not wish the ETCS working group to continue. I therefore formed a Research and Development working group under the same UK management, namely
Gareth Rees and Brian Wilson. They will continue with the outstanding work involving specialist aspects of a pilot’s qualification that will not be sent to Brussels and then consider all new innovative technology that will affect pilots in the future.
It was agreed to oppose the proposed EUPP (2) (European Union Port Package) that includes competition in pilotage. Support for the MarNIS project (Maritime Navigation Information Service) was unanimous. This project will continue until 2009 and if accepted could become law by 2012. At the moment SBP (Shore Based Pilotage) has been kept out of MarNIS. Interestingly, IALA has also rejected the concept of SBP. However, it is practiced in some European ports!
I attended the Public Hearing on the EUPP (2) in the EU parliament in Brussels on the 14th of June. The majority of representatives opposed the proposed Port Package, particularly the self- handling issue. Our ship owner “friends” were their usual delightful selves in condemning pilots opposition to inclusion in the Directive. The UKMPG (UK Major Ports Group) are also opposed to the directive.
CHIRP
A board meeting was held at Shell House in London to Review the success of the Programme thus far and present evidence to the DfT for continuing to fund the programme. It was generally accepted that it should continue because evidence is available that action has been taken to improve safety following reports being submitted.
L G Cate, Chairman
SITE SPONSORS
RSS Feed