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Britain forces companies to pay UK minimum wage to ferry crews

Details: Written by Kari Reinikainen Kari Reinikainen; Category: More News More News; Published: 07 July 2022 07 July 2022

The UK government has introduced new legislation to make sure seafarers get paid at least equivalent to the UK National Minimum Wage of £9.50 per hour, the government said in a statement.

“Vessels and services that call on UK ports at least every 72 hours on average, or more than 120 times a year, will fall under these new pay requirements and the ports, Maritime and Coastguard Agency and Department for Transport will all have a role in ensuring compliance,” the government said.

It is interesting to note that the legislation applies to all vessels that fall under the criteria, irrespective what flag they fly. In practice, it will affect mostly passenger and freight ferries. Reference to "vessels and services" implies that a company that serves the UK at a high frequency cannot avoid paying the UK minimum wage by e.g. by rotating ships on services to various countries.

Vessels that break law can be denied access to port

The government said The Seafarers’ Wages Bill that was introduced in the House of Lords on 6 July enables port authorities to deny access to services calling regularly at UK ports who do not pay their workers equivalent rate to the UK National Minimum Wage (NMWe) for time spent in UK waters.

The topic become of urgency in the spring, when DP World owned ferry company P&O Ferries dismissed 800 seafarers and replaced them by cheaper crews. Maritime Minister Robert Courts said: “Britain’s rich maritime history and exciting future is thanks to the extraordinary men and women who work at sea.Fair pay for seafarers is a must and the new laws we’ve introduced in Parliament today send a clear signal to operators that the UK will not let seafarers be priced out of their jobs by rogue bosses."

"Following P&O Ferries’ shameful conduct, the government launched the consultation on the Seafarers’ Wages Bill in May 2022. The response, published alongside the introduction of the bill today, shows that the overwhelming majority of respondents agreed that pay protection must remain at the forefront of the sector’s objectives,” he said

Explora Journeys adds two newbuildings; to use LNG, hydrogen on ships three to six

Details: Written by Kari Reinikainen Kari Reinikainen; Category: More News More News; Published: 06 July 2022 06 July 2022

Explora Journeys, the luxury segment unit in the cruise division of Geneva based MSC group, said it has increased the number of newbuildings by two to six and that its third to sixth newbuildings would use LNG and that they would have a 6MW hydrogen fuel cell.

The fuel cell would allow the ships to generate power emission free for the hotel load when in port.

Explora III and Explora IV will be 19 metres longer than the first two 243 metre, 64,000 gross ton ships the line has on order at Fincantieri. The extra length is needed to accommodate the systems needed for the LNG and hydrogen fuels that were not included in the design when they were ordered

Explora V and Explora VI that the company has decided to add to its order book with Fincantieri, will feature new type of LNG engines that will tackle the issue of methane slip, Explora Journeys said in a statement.

A firm order for the ships five and six is subject to financing, it added.

Photo: Explora I

Marella Cruises returns to Asia 2023/24

Details: Written by Kari Reinikainen Kari Reinikainen; Category: More News More News; Published: 06 July 2022 06 July 2022

Marella Cruises, the UK focused line that is part of TUI AG group, will return to Asia in the winter of 2023/24, Travel Weekly reports.

Marella Discovery 2 will operate a series of four 15 night cruises from Singapore and positioning voyages to and from the Mediterranean via South East Asian ports.

The company used Marella Discovery in Asia for a few winters before the pandemic, but this is the first time the line returns to the region since then.

Photo: Marella Discovery, sister ship of Marella Discovery 2, in Dubai in 2018.

Saga reports strong performance of cruise activities

Details: Written by Kari Reinikainen Kari Reinikainen; Category: More News More News; Published: 06 July 2022 06 July 2022

Saga plc, the UK based company that sells a wide range of services to those over the age of 50, has reported strong performance of its cruise operations

The company that has two luxury market segment ocean going and two river cruise vessels that is operates under the Saga Cruises brand said that the load factor booked for 2022/23 stood at 73% at a per diem of 3319 and that it expected the full year load factor to reach 75%.

The 2023/24 programme has met strong demand and load factor currently stands at 34% and the per diem at £312., both figures being well ahead of the company’s expectations.

Saga’s other products include travel and financial services and shares in the company are listed on the London Stock Exchange.

First Meyer built cruise ship reported arrived for scrapping

Details: Written by Kari Reinikainen Kari Reinikainen; Category: More News More News; Published: 06 July 2022 06 July 2022

The first cruise ship built by Meyer Werft in Germany has arrived for scrapping in Turkey after being laid up for about two years, media reports say.

The 54,760 gross ton Marella Dream was taken out of service by the UK based Marella Cruises at the start of the pandemic. It has remained in lay up in Greece until its recent arrival at Aliaga.

The ship started life as Homeric of the now defunct Home Lines in 1986 - it was the last of the only three newbuildings the Switzerland based company had commissioned. The first one of these was the Italian built oceanic of 1965 that was the first ship to feature a magrodome, a sliding glass roof over the pool area.

Holland America Line acquired Homeric in 1989 and lengthened the vessel by 40 metres to 244 metres, which increased its gross tonnage to 54,760 from 42,092. The ship also sailed for Costa Crociere before joining Thomson Cruises in 2010 that was renamed Marella Cruises seven years later.

Like many ships of this era, Marella Dream did not have any balcony cabins as built and only a few suites added in the lengthening work featured them.

Meyer Werft had built a series of 4,000 to 5,000 gross register ton - as the measurement was then called - ferries to various operators in the early to mid-1970s. These small but well designed vessels, many of which were operated by Viking Line between Finland and Sweden, had laid the foundation for the yard's passenger ship building business.