Members of Unite who maintain harbours are paid minimum wage by DAERA arms-length body

DAERA minister challenged on his department’s status as an accredited Living Wage employer

Unite has written to Rural Affairs (DAERA) Andrew Muir to seek an urgent meeting on poverty pay afflicting harbour and fisheries workers. The union represents the overwhelming majority of the workers employed by the Northern Ireland Fisheries and Harbour Authority (NIFHA), an arms-length body funded by DAERA.

A strike of NIFHA workers would immediately shutdown the ability of Northern Ireland’s fishing fleet to land their catch at the primary harbours of Kilkeel, Ardglass and Portavogie. The union is seeking intervention by the minister to raise pay of all workers initially to the living wage and to provide pay increments which were recommended in an external grading review conducted in 2019 but which were never implemented.

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said, “It is disgraceful that most workers at the NIFHA paid the bare legal minimum. Even the harbour masters are paid only a few pennies more than the living wage. The fisheries and harbours workforce can count on the full backing of Unite in their fight for improved pay.”

Unite regional officer, Joanne McWilliams said:“How can the DAERA Minister claim his department is an accredited living wage employer when the NIFHA pays the bare legal minimum? This is not acceptable or sustainable.

“Our members seek the immediate delivery of a living wage as well as the implementation of the pay grades recommended by a 2019 review.

“Unite is seeking an urgent meeting with the minister to allow our reps explain to him the impact poverty pay is having on them and on what is a vital service. The minister needs to urgently intervene to address this issue and avoid the potential for an escalating and highly disruptive industrial dispute.”