Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2009-01-13-Speech-2-408"
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"en.20090113.31.2-408"2
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"Madam President, I am very happy to speak on this issue here tonight. I believe that the job of a fisherman, or indeed a fisherwoman insofar as there are some, is one of the most dangerous jobs in the world. Certainly, in Ireland alone, rarely does a year pass without some fishing boat being lost at sea, and many fishers are injured in their work.
As a former Minister for Social Welfare in Ireland it was my task to try and find a way in which the rights of people working on fishing boats could be respected. It is an extremely complex area, where the issue is whether one is working under a ‘contract of work’ or a ‘contract for work’ – the difference being between those who are working as a normal employee for tax purposes and thus pay their social contributions to the skipper who is an employer, and those who share the proceeds of the catch, who are not treated as normal employees. The difficulties in reconciling those positions are extremely complex. As a Minister I managed to find a piece of European legislation which resolved the problem for a short period, but unfortunately it was subsequently challenged and found not to apply precisely to the issues at stake.
The importance of having common minimum standards which are globally applied really goes without saying. These include standards of health and safety on board, accommodation, the provision of food, and indeed the guarantee that minimum rates of pay are also applied to those who are employees, and that there is an obligation on boat owners and skippers to ensure that people’s contributions are fully paid up.
It is important that these are global minimum standards, because unfortunately the tendency has been for a race to the bottom in this area, as indeed in other areas too, so having this convention approved as soon as possible would certainly be something that I would urge at a very early stage. I think 2012 is a long way away and we should try to shorten this deadline if at all possible."@en1
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