One marooned ship exposes the Brexiteers’ phoney claims | Polly Toynbee

The case of the Malaviya Twenty and its crew isn’t a one-off. Foreign companies have stranded other unpaid crews here

I last visited the ship two years ago, already long marooned at its berth. Returning last week, Great Yarmouth had become a near-prison for its Indian captain and crew, waiting for their back pay that never came. The Malaviya Twenty is a silent symbol of the sinking British shipping industry. Why was an Indian ship employed to ply to and from British ports, servicing the British oil industry and British wind farms? Because a foreign-registered ship could pay its crew a third of a British crew’s wages or less: despite government guidance, the UK minimum wage isn’t currently enforceable. With the oil industry downturn, the Malaviya’s owners stopped paying the crew and there the ship stayed, arrested by maritime authorities. But soon the crew will be free.

Related: UK manufacturing growth hits 25-month low amid Brexit fears

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from The Guardian https://ift.tt/2oDIh4m