FAIR PAY FOR THE ROYAL FLEET AUXILIARY'S MERCHANT SEAFARERS

That this House recognises the strategic significance to the UK of the near 2000 merchant seafarers employed on the Royal Fleet Auxiliary (RFA) who re-fuel, re-arm and re-supply Royal Navy ships wherever they are in the world; notes that successive freezes, cuts and restraint since 2008-09 have seriously undermined pay for civilian Ratings and Officers in the RFA; further notes that significant cuts have been made to pension and redundancy rights for RFA seafarers in the same period; is concerned that these policies are now affecting morale, as well as recruitment and retention of merchant seafarers in the RFA; welcomes a total of 2.9 per cent increase in Royal Navy pay in 2018-19; notes the below inflation of 1.5 per cent settlement imposed on RFA's merchant seafarers for the same year; supports the RMT trade union's campaign for fair pay for RFA seafarers; pays tribute to the memory of the seventeen merchant Navy seafarers who died on the Atlantic Conveyor and the RFA ships Sir Galahad and Sir Tristram during the Falklands conflict in 1982; and calls on the Government to take immediate steps to improve industrial relations in the RFA by agreeing to a meaningful increase in pay for RFA's civilian seafarers 2019-20.