Fishing boat owners not signing up for new permits required by law from Monday

Just 53 of the 500 permits have been sought by boat owners for non-EU fishermen on their vessels, even though the permits are required by law from next Monday.

From that day, all non-EU fishermen seeking to work in the industry here will have to have “atypical worker permission” and be given proper contracts of employment and be paid statutory minimum wages as employees of the boat owner.

However, according to Ken Fleming of the International Transport Workers Federation (ITF) a conference on the industry was told by the Department of Justice yesterday that just 53 applications for the permits have been received and only 40 granted — 12 are pending and one has been refused.

Mr Fleming, who is ITF coordinator for Britain and Ireland, said: “The scheme provides for 500 permits and it’s clear from the numbers approved that the scheme is not acceptable to the industry.

“Why in the 11th hour has this come to light? The industry had plenty of time to address this.

“Given the figures available today, boat owners will be outside the law come Monday. I am now calling on all the State agencies to get out there and enforce the law.

“We have had complaints of fishermen being sacked from boats rather than register them in the scheme.” He called for Bord Iascaigh Mhara to withdraw all support by way of training for non-registered fishermen.

He also said yesterday’s conference had heard that 54 boats had been visited by officials for owners to be warned that the fishermen needed to be compliant with the law.

Mr Fleming said he had, in the last few days, been informed of numerous cases where non-EU fishermen were being put off boats ahead of the impending deadline.

In one case, he said the Egyptian fisherman told him he was earning up to €600 per trip — but that with the hours he was working in that week, he would have earned up to €1,200 for that same trip, if earning the statutory minimum hourly wage.

“The ITF will be out in the ports from Monday carrying out its own responsibility,” said Mr Fleming.

“We will also consider seeking redress against the boat owners on behalf of all those sacked as a result of seeking to be registered in the scheme.”

The ITF coordinator said the only way the whole issue can be dealt with is if the industry representatives connect with the ITF and form a joint approach.

“A dispute resolution group could be formed where issues of differences could be addressed,” he said.