Adopted unanimously in the National Assembly, Tuesday evening March 18, a bill by the Macronist deputy of Finistère, Didier Le Gac, prepared with the communist Sébastien Jumel (Seine-Maritime), tackled social dumping of certain ferry companies between Great Britain and France, in order to guarantee a minimum wage and respect for working conditions. The text voted on at first reading must now be sent to the Senate.
“This is a decisive step in the fight against social dumping”estimated the Secretary of State for the Sea, Hervé Berville, who pleaded during the debates for the “preservation of the French model” It front of “unscrupulous and scandalous practices of certain shipowners”. Thanks to this bill, parliamentarians intend to defend the French company Brittany Ferries against competition judged “unfair”.
During the debates, Messrs. Le Gac and Berville pointed the finger at P&O Ferries and its ships flying the Cypriot flag. P&O caused a scandal a year ago by dismissing nearly 800 sailors without notice, before hiring low-cost non-EU workers.
The affair caused a deep stir on both sides of the Channel. The United Kingdom has just announced the entry into force of a law preventing seafarers from being paid below the British minimum wage. On the French side, the bill aims to establish hierarchical minima for determining the wages of sailors, regardless of the flag of these passenger-carrying ships. It also limits the boarding time which must be, at most, equivalent to the rest time on land.
Defend the French company Brittany Ferries
In the event of breaches, amendments adopted in the hemicycle supplemented the penal sanctions provided for by the text by the “power for the supervisory authorities to impose administrative sanctions”. A “no docking” has also been added “from the third violation found”, via the adoption of an amendment by the La France insoumise (LFI) group. In the same logic, the text wants to sanction the admission on board of a foreign sailor who does not have a valid medical fitness certificate.
Via a future decree, the government has promised the deputies to“exclude cross-Channel links from the French international register”the RIF, whose rules are less protective than the national rules.
“Often we say that France has its back to the sea, tonight we looked it in the face”Didier Le Gac welcomed after the vote, described as “essential first step” For “save our merchant navy”.