Pay Gaps Between Domestic and International Fishers: an Economic or Ethical Issue?
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RESEARCH
Pay Gaps Between Domestic and International Fishers: an Economic or Ethical Issue? Estelle Jones 1,2
&
Katherine Botterill 3 & Cornilius Chikwama 2 & Alex Caveen 1 & Tim Gray 1
Received: 6 June 2018 / Accepted: 16 January 2019 # The Author(s) 2019
Abstract Through the global market for maritime labour, multi-national crews now work on fishing vessels which were once serviced by domestic crews only. The remuneration and working conditions for non-domestic crews are causing concern, with allegations of unequal and poor pay levelled at the industry. This paper presents evidence from Scotland, a nation where a significant proportion of crews on fishing vessels originate from outside of the UK, a large number of whom come from outside the European Economic Area. Their level of remuneration is significantly lower than their Scottish counterparts, even when employed on the same boats to carry out the same work. The question arises whether the remuneration and inferred pay differences are justifiable economic consequences of local and global labour markets, or whether they constitute a failure of maritime governing institutions to prevent unjust pay discrimination. After exploring the economic and ethical arguments for keeping or removing remuneration differentials, the paper concludes that ‘equal share’ is the most just distributional criterion for international fishers’ remuneration. Although we recognise that other distributive justice principles will continue to be defended on economic grounds, the paper argues that policy makers need to find ways of redressing the power imbalances between employers and employees that contribute to unequal pay. Keywords Pay . Nationality . Scotland . Marine fishing . Justice . Equal share
Introduction Over the last 30 years, international economic integration has led to a global market for maritime labour, including fishing labour (Winchester and Bailey 2012; Glen 2008; Sampson 2003). Increasingly seen as a ‘globalized sector of the world economy’ (Winchester and Bailey 2012: p. 713), employment aboard vessels has been described as ‘a truly global, multi-national and multi-cultural occupation’ (Glen 2008: p. 845). However, whilst there is a wide variety of regulatory frameworks governing seafarers’ work at sea,1 for seafarers on fishing vessels, there are 1 For example, the Merchant Shipping (Maritime Labour Convention) (Minimum Requirements for Seafarers etc.) Regulations 2014; the International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watch-keeping for Fishing Vessel Personnel (STCW-F) 1995; the FAO Code of Conduct for responsible Fisheries 1995; and the FAO International Plan of Action to Prevent, Deter and Eliminate Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated Fishing (IPOA-IUU), 2001.
* Estelle Jones [email protected] 1
Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
2
Marine Scotland, Edinburgh, UK
3
Edinburgh Napier University, Edinburgh, UK
gaps in the policies and laws because of perceived difficulties of implementing regulations in the fishing se
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