The UK trade union movement has once again emphatically backed Nautilus International’s ongoing campaign to stand up for female seafarers’ rights.
This latest endorsement came at the TUC Women’s Conference on 6 March, when Nautilus women’s lead Rachel Lynch moved the motion Supporting seafarers through menopause at sea.
Inspired by a member discussion at the Nautilus Women's Forum, the motion asked the policy-making conference to recognise that women seafarers will experience the menopause during their careers, often while working in isolated, confined, and physically demanding maritime environments.
These conditions can make it difficult to manage symptoms with dignity, particularly when privacy and access to appropriate healthcare are limited. The absence of reasonable workplace adjustments not only affects individual and crew wellbeing but may also drive experienced women out of the seafaring profession.
In her speech, Ms Lynch stressed that the continuing neglect of women’s health needs in shipping remains a barrier to gender equality. She called on the conference to support the motion, which would require the TUC Women’s Committee to:
- continue to raise awareness of menopause and the need for reasonable workplace adjustments
- lobby the UK government to ensure the provisions of the Employment Rights Act apply to the shipping sector
- lobby the UK government to seek amendments to the ILO Maritime Labour Convention to include menopause guidelines
- ensure seafarers’ representatives are included in future TUC campaigns on menopause
Seconding the motion, seafarer Emma Purcell of the RMT union shared some of her own experiences of dealing with the perimenopause at sea. She said she counted herself lucky that her own company had a menopause policy, because this is uncommon among maritime employers.
Following two more speeches in support of the motion, it was passed unanimously by a vote of conference delegates.
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