GFTU BGCM Minutes 2017

powerful. That is not the General Secretary. That is any union official at any

time via the ITF. We have used it on many occasions. I have done it myself in

the last six weeks with a super yacht off the coast of Thailand where we

unfortunately lost a young seafarer who lost both his legs. The owner of the

yacht was only one mile off the coast of Thailand and would not allow the

helicopter to take off the helipad and the lad unfortunately bled to death after

about three hours and we are taking a manslaughter charge against the

Russian owner. But these are some of the instances we have to deal with

worldwide. I just mentioned BP. They employ a lot of our members, a lot of

British employees. British Petroleum, you would think you cannot get much

more British than that, 1,000 employees on the River Thames, but they are

based in Singapore, so if I have a discipline or a grievance to deal with, I have

to go to Singapore, I have to do it under Singapore law. I cannot do it under

UK law, none of our members are protected. They all reside in the UK, but

they are not protected, because all seafarers are exempt from UK legislation.

Dealing with the likes of BP we might have a dispute that might be something

simple on the likes of a discipline or a grievance, they are trying to utilise other

law, even if we get past that, even if we have got an unfair dismissal case and

we go to the judge for a tribunal court and he gives us jurisdiction on the basis

of that, they will then offset it, because the vessel that they are working on,

your workplace, will be Cayman Island or Marshall Islands or Bermuda, it will

be an offshore flag. Even if you get past the employer, you have then got to

get past the flag. If you get past the flag you have then got to get past where

the wages are paid and the wages will be paid from Cyprus or the Isle of Man

or whatever, so you are dealing with four, five, six regulatory countries all the

time.

I think a few people have quoted over the last day or two that it can look quite

bleak at times in the normal trade union movement what is happening with the

Labour Party etc. It can with us when we are trying to do that, but what do we

do? We do what other people have been saying for two days, we work our way

through it and we deal with it and we do not make it appropriate for the

company. BP know now that we will go to Singapore. We have an office in

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