With workers' rights generating buzz this year as the Employment Rights Act comes into force, now is the time to spotlight how the UK fails to legally protect domestic maritime jobs. Sarah Robinson explains the latest moves in the Nautilus campaign for cabotage legislation
Nautilus members want cabotage laws. It’s often been raised over the years at Union meetings, and it’s seen as a way to achieve the goal of good jobs for domestic seafarers – not to mention boosting national security and resilience.
Thanks to Union democracy, it’s been official policy to campaign for UK cabotage since 2023, when members passed a resolution on the subject at the General Meeting. 'At Nautilus International, we are committed to campaigning for policy interventions that support the growth of domestic shipping,' general secretary Mark Dickinson confirms.
How the UK became the odd one out
The Nautilus campaign received a significant boost towards the end of last year, when new research revealed that cabotage laws are now in force along 85% of the world’s coastline and extend into more offshore zones.
Cabotage has spread to 105 states, leaving countries such as the UK in a small minority without a legal framework to support domestic maritime jobs.
The research was carried out by Seafarers' Rights International (SRI), which was updating its seminal 2018 publication Cabotage Laws of the World. The new edition was co-authored by SRI CEO Deirdre Fitzpatrick and Professor Hilton Staniland of Queen Mary, University of London.
The authors found that cabotage has increased in several regions of the world, including West Africa, East Africa, the Horn of Africa, the Middle East, Central America, the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea.
The spread of cabotage
Prof Staniland observed that the increase in cabotage is part of a movement where nations follow each other's lead: 'No single reason explains the spread of cabotage, but it does appear that when states decide to introduce cabotage, they pay particular attention to the number of states that already have cabotage.'
He added that there have been momentous changes since the first edition of Cabotage Laws of the World, when 91 nations had cabotage. 'These changes include Covid-19, geopolitical tensions disrupting shipping, changing trading tariffs, and the emergence of new cabotage trades, routes and activities. Cabotage changes are now occurring almost constantly, driven hard, it appears, by a collection of complex geopolitical issues.'
Traditional and modern laws
In response to the updated SRI report, ITF maritime coordinator Jacqueline Smith highlighted the variety of cabotage laws around the world. 'The reservation of jobs for national seafarers is a very common requirement,' she noted, 'sometimes requiring that national vessels are wholly crewed by national seafarers.
'Cabotage laws may also provide for minimum wages. And minimum wages may also be required in offshore zones, even though this requirement may not be part of traditional cabotage laws. All this helps to ensure that seafarers get treated decently and shipowners compete fairly.'
The Nautilus campaign
The Union has now produced a policy report looking at how cabotage laws are applied in other advanced economies and exploring how similar legislation could benefit UK seafarers.
We have a feature article with the highlights of this document here, and you can also download the full text from the Resources section of the Nautilus website.
Our aim is to use the policy report to influence MPs and government ministers, so that the introduction of cabotage laws becomes a key part of the legislative agenda in the coming years.
- What’s your view on cabotage? Email telegraph@nautilusint.org with a letter to the editor
Explainer: What is cabotage?
The Cambridge English Dictionary defines cabotage as: 'A set of laws made by a government of a country to prevent or limit the transport of goods or people within the country's borders by foreign vehicles, ships, or aircraft.'
Perhaps the best-known example of cabotage legislation is the US Jones Act (Merchant Marine Act of 1920), which requires goods transported between US ports to use ships that are US-built, US-owned, US-crewed, and US-flagged. The aim is to support the American maritime industry, shipbuilding, and national security by ensuring a strong domestic merchant fleet.
Other countries do not have such far-reaching applications of the cabotage principle, but most maritime nations do have some laws which boost domestic shipping and seafarers.
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