§ 7.43 p.m.
§ THE EARL OF GOWRIE rose to move, That the Draft Redundancy Payments (Merchant Seamen Exclusion) Order 1973, laid before the House on June 11, be approved. The noble Earl said: My Lords, the Order before your Lordships' House to-day replaces an Order which was published on October 23, 1972. That Order referred to the service of merchant seamen under articles. From 617 January 1, 1973, merchant seamen are no longer employed under articles but under crew agreements, and a reference is included accordingly in the present Order. The main purpose of the Order, as before, is to prevent a possible anomaly from affecting the entitlement of merchant seamen to payments under the Redundancy Payments Act 1965. In 1968 an Order was made after consultation with the shipping industry to exclude merchant seamen from the statutory scheme where their service is covered by a voluntary redundancy payments scheme agreed by the industry. In one respect the criteria of exclusion in the 1968 Order has been found to be too wide. Service was excluded if it was under articles requiring the observance of National Maritime Board terms and conditions of employment.
§ The articles, however, have been used by some employers who are under no obligation to participate in the industry's redundancy payments scheme, and the same will apply to the crew agreements which have now replaced the articles. The obligation to participate arises only where the employer is in membership of an organisation affiliated to the National Maritime Board. Consequently, some merchant seamen might be excluded from the statutory scheme even though their service was not covered by the industry scheme. The Board have asked for the Order to be amended in order to close any possible gap. The Order which I am now asking your Lordships to approve seeks to remedy this anomaly by excluding service under articles, or from January 1 under crew agreements, only where the service is in a ship which is covered by the employer's membership of an affiliated organisation. I beg to move.
§ Moved, That the Draft Redundancy Payments (Merchant Seamen Exclusion) Order 1973, laid before the House on June 11, be approved. —(The Earl of Gowrie.)