Member Nick R 8 has used TheMainSail forum to raise the issue of pay and conditions within HM Coastguard.
“I work at a busy South Coast MRCC,” he writes. “I'm sure I don't have to spell out the service that HM Coastguard provides to the yachting community, or indeed anyone else in trouble. But it may surprise people to know that after almost a year of training and hours of professional exams the junior grade of coastguard earns £5.46 an hour. That equates to just under £12,000 annual salary.”
He points out that this doesn't compare to well with other emergency service control staff - in the fire service they start on £19, 000. With “an ever increasing workload and a Search and Rescue coordination role that is much more in depth than any other emergency service's control room” this hardly seems fair particularly when “I could actually earn more tossing burgers for 37hrs a week rather than the 42 I do for the Coastguard.”
Nick adds: “For three years we have been promised one sort of pay increase or another, none of which have materialised.”
So, in an effort to attract attention to their cause, for about two months they have been working to rule: “not completing various bits of paperwork and the like which don't impact on the public but we hoped would affect management. So far it seems to have had little effect.”
Nick is afraid that action is therefore likely to escalate - possibly with Coastguard stations around the coast either shutting, or only responding to distress radio traffic and 999 calls.
“None of us want to go down this road,” says Nick. “I for one am ex-forces and am not even in the union (mainly because the dues are equal to my year's car tax!). We are certainly not militant or combative by nature, we just feel grossly under-valued. I hope people out there realise this and support us in our efforts to earn a half decent living.”
He appeals to people who support their cause to sign their online petition and “make your voice count.”
Nick says: “It doesn't seem right that the person who answers your Mayday call gets paid less than the person who asks if you want chips with your Big Mac!”
If you agree, go to petitions.pm.gov.uk/Coastguard/
