Chamber and committees

A lot of proposals that have been made in the evidence would require the committee to have a lot more data. You are probably not best placed to provide most of that. However, the first point in your action plan is that there should be an annual national safety awareness campaign, jointly funded by the industry and the Government. How much does the industry currently spend on education and awareness?

I think that I have heard about those videos. However, that is quite a small amount of money to spend. I presume that you are a multimillion pound industry that makes massive profits. Over the past 20 years, how much resource have you devoted to education and awareness-raising activity that might help to deal with some of the challenges that the committee is attempting to grapple with? You might be able to provide that in writing after the meeting.

I welcome the debate and the tone of the minister’s opening remarks, as she seemed to accept that islanders have been let down.

Islanders on Arran and Cumbrae contact me almost daily about ferry cancellations. They fully appreciate the problems that are caused by weather and by Covid, which is still with us, but they get in touch about issues connected to mechanical and technical failures, which impact on their lives and the lives of everyone in their community. This debate is about the failure to deliver a resilient ferry fleet.

In the time available, I will focus on the long-term failure to invest in new fleet on CalMac routes, the lack of an industrial strategy or procurement framework to ensure that we have the capacity to build new fleet in Scotland, and the wider issues relating to employment rights in the maritime sector, which Jackie Dunbar referred to and which have been highlighted again through the treatment of P&O workers.

Most industry experts agree that the average life expectancy of a ferry is 25 years. Half of the 31 state-owned ferries in Scotland are older than that. The MV Caledonian Isles, on the Ardrossan to Brodick route, was brought into service in 1993; the MV Loch Riddon, on the Largs to Cumbrae route, was brought into service in 1986; and the MV Isle of Arran, which is used on the Ardrossan to Campbeltown and the Ardrossan to Arran routes, was brought into service in 1983. Over the past five years, more than 1,000 ferry sailings have been delayed due to mechanical issues associated with the age of the fleet.

The consistent failure to provide investment since 2007 is one reason why we are in the position that we are in. Earlier, we heard the statement about Ferguson Marine. It is important that we put on record that it is not the workforce’s fault that we are in this position; we are in this position because of mistakes and mismanagement by politicians and management. We need to rebuild the reputation of the yard and ensure that a pipeline of future ferry contracts can be achieved, and we need to learn from the mistakes that have been made up until now.

The Scottish Government has wasted more than half a million pounds in taxpayers’ money for private firm Ernst & Young to provide advice since 2015. We have already heard that senior management have been paid eye-watering sums. We need an emergency ferries plan with a procurement strategy to ensure that our ferries are built in Scotland and that groups such as the Arran Ferry Action Group and islanders in the affected communities are involved in decision making. Frankly, if they had been more involved in the decision making that led to our having this debate, we would not be hearing these kinds of contributions from members on all sides of the chamber.

The trade unions also need to be involved in those discussions—I asked the cabinet secretary yesterday if they could be involved in discussions about P&O ferries. It is vital that the workforce in CalMac, CMAL and Ferguson Marine be involved in those discussions, too.

The Scottish Government needs to accept that mistakes have been made; it needs to stop digging and to accept that, since 2007, investment has not been made at the level that has been required, and therefore that further investment is needed to catch up. We need to start including communities in decision making, which includes having the Scottish Government agree to a public inquiry to ensure that lessons are learnt for the future.

The backdrop is the marine sector, which employment law does not fully cover. Due to the exemption of seafarers from all employment law regulations, workforces that are brought in are paid less than the national minimum wage. That is part of the reason why it is important that ferries are kept in the public sector and that Ferguson Marine, CalMac and other parts of the sector that are owned by the public are successful.

I assure the Scottish Government that it has the support of Scottish Labour in keeping these services in public ownership. However, we genuinely believe that the Government needs to listen to what communities, the workforce and all involved are saying, to learn lessons and to agree to a public inquiry, so that we do not repeat the mistakes that were made in the past.

I fully concur with the member’s points about what the UK Government should do, but does he not accept that, in the college sector, it is a matter of policy from the Scottish Government?

Is the member aware that, in the 14 years up to 2007, 26 ferries were brought into service? Does she accept that the 14 years since 2007 compare poorly with that, and that the long-term failure to invest since 2007 is the real reason why we are having this debate today?

Islanders on Arran and other islands were asking for smaller vessels. Does the cabinet secretary now agree with the views of many that Ferguson Marine should have been awarded contracts for smaller, simpler ferries, which could have been constructed far more speedily for those islands?

It is a pleasure to congratulate Ross Greer on securing the debate and on his motion, which highlights the record of industrial relations in the college sector over the past decade. In particular, it highlights the fact that there has been strike action in six out of the past eight years. Most of us will be aware of specific disputes in colleges in the areas that we represent. Even over the past few days, I have been consulted by staff in Ayrshire College, who are concerned about the draft budget, which has a £51.9 million cut and will have massive consequences for the workforce there.

Stephen Kerr is correct to put on record the pressure that students have been under during Covid. Of course, they will also be affected by industrial action. Many people who work in the college sector are very aware of that, so it is a difficult decision for them to take industrial action. It shows that industrial relations in the sector have deteriorated and that the Scottish Government needs to intervene to repair the relationships between Colleges Scotland and trade unionists. The issues have to be viewed in the wider context, and there can be absolutely no doubt that the level of cuts that colleges face has been a factor in the situation.

If we compare the treatment of colleges and college students to what happens in other parts of the education sector, we see a dramatic contrast. More than £8,000 is spent each year per secondary school student. The figure is more than £7,000 per pre-school child, more than £6,000 for primary school students, just under £6,000 for university students and just over £4,000 for college students. We know the class nature of college students and that, historically, working-class communities have looked to colleges, as have some of the trades and sectors that we need for our society and economy to survive. Whether it is building trades, beauty or hairdressing, they are many of the service industries to which working-class people look.

Since 2014, the college sector has been subjected to numerous industrial disputes. The grievances have been on issues such as equal pay, common conditions of service, transfer to permanent status for staff who are on insecure contracts, annual pay agreements, fire and rehire, which has been referred to, and disciplinary and grievance procedures and policies. It is clear that there are significant cultural issues in the sector, given that industrial relations are in such a dire condition.

I first became an elected representative in 2005, and I recall at that time being approached about issues at what is now Ayrshire College at Kilwinning. Although the issues then were different, the recurring theme is that the whole sector has been subjected to a backdrop of poor industrial relations.

We know that the EIS-Further Education Lecturers Association is in dispute, and that Unison has lodged a formal dispute with colleges. We also know that 92 per cent of college workers rejected the pay offer. As Ross Greer said, UCU members are in dispute as a result of a 35 per cent cut to pensions and a 25.5 per cent real-terms cut to their pay since 2009.

I thank Ross Greer for raising the issues, and I hope that the Scottish Government will actively engage with them.

Is the minister aware that safety concerns have been raised previously in relation to seafarer fatigue on P&O ferries in a report by Professor Andy Smith of Cardiff University? Given that the new crew will be working even longer shifts and as much as a seven-day week for a continuous eight weeks, will the minister ask for an urgent meeting with the safety regulator, the Maritime and Coastguard Agency?

The new crew will be employed by International Fleet Management, which was incorporated only last month, in Malta. Given the concerns about whether the ships are safe to sail, I ask that the trade unions attend any meetings with the Maritime and Coastguard Agency.

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with DP World and P&O Ferries regarding the loss of jobs for ferry staff working out of Cairnryan. (S6T-00610)