Fishing union lodges complaint over RTÉ programme Skippers

AN international trade union representing workers in the fishing industry has lodged a complaint with RTÉ over its Skippers programme, claiming it ignored major health and safety and worker abuse issues that are plaguing the industry.

In its write-up for the series, RTÉ said its creators “ate, slept, breathed and fished with our skippers while they were out on the high seas in the world’s most dangerous job, creating a sense of immediacy with the audience at home; bringing the action, and turmoil wave by wave, roll by roll”.

However, Ken Fleming the International Transport Workers Federation’s (ITF) inspector in Ireland said there were glaring omissions in the programme’s contents.

He said all the vessels covered in the programme had foreign crew members.

“Some of these were non-EU nationals and one of them, an Egyptian fisherman, was interviewed at some length about his work,” he said. “The makers of the documentary are obviously not familiar with the fishing industry in Ireland and did not realise that one of the major problems confronting the ITF is ensuring that national and international agreements on pay and working conditions are observed.

“On what basis were the non-EU nationals filmed employed? Did they have work permits? If not, how did they access the state and on what basis are they employed? We have had cases of Egyptian fishermen arriving in Ireland on tourist visas to Italy.”

He also said the programme makers should have broadcast whether the rates paid to the fishermen were in conformity with Irish or international agreements.

He said in the second programme there was shown to be serious communication problems between a non-EU national and an Irish worker new to the industry regarding the operation of winches.

“This raises the question of what health and safety training or procedures are operational on board. This point has not yet been made to RTÉ as it has still to respond to the points raised about the first programme,” he said.

“The vessels covered in the series are among the best in the industry and no hard questions are asked about working conditions, treatment of crews or health and safety issues. The British government banned the use of illegal workers from the Scottish fishing industry after the Fraserburgh tragedy. In Ireland, North and South, we still tolerate this practice. I believe it is totally unacceptable that a public broadcaster should be promoting an industry whose practices are unacceptable internationally.”

RTÉ said the documentary- makers record the events as they find them. “So, for example, the composition of a particular crew is not their responsibility. We see many aspects of their work, the difficult challenges they encounter and how it impacts on their home lives.

“The issues raised regarding working conditions/pay/living conditions are touched on as part of the experiences of those fishermen profiled as they go about their daily life. However, we would stress that one series could not hope to cover every aspect of the fishing industry in Ireland.”