Member Article

Youth Interest in Shipping Demands Response

From hundreds of photos and essays, winners of the Wista UK 2016 Came by SHIP competition have just been announced in London.

The photo and essay competition was organised by WISTA UK through its Came by Ship campaign to promote the importance of shipping to younger generations. The photo and essay competition was open to schools, cadets, youth groups, as well as individuals.

The essay competition for 12-18 year olds and photographic competition had 4 categories, 11 and under and 12-18, persons above 18 and Professional photographers.

The winning essay writer Beth Carter took a youthful look at Brexit and the consequences. She was presented her certificate during WISTA UK’s debate on the 28th April 2017. The runner up was Abi Wells.

The debate was on the gender pay gap in the maritime industry highlighted in the Maritime HR Consulting survey results and the new legal requirements from April. This maritime survey concluded that the difference between the mean hourly rate of male and female employees was 39.1% (against the national average of 19%) and the difference between the mean bonus pay paid to relevant male and female employees was 48.81%.

The new legislation is for gender pay reporting legislation requires employers with 250 or more employees to publish statutory calculations every year showing how large the pay gap is between their male and female employees. These results must be published on the employers own website and a government site. This means that the gender pay gap will be publicly available, including to customers, employees and potential future recruits. As a result, employers should consider taking new or faster actions to reduce or eliminate their gender pay gaps.

Regulations for the private and voluntary sectors have now been approved and will commence from April 2017, from which point employers will have up to 12 months to publish this information. Public sector regulations are subject to the approval of Parliament but are expected to follow the same timescale.

The debate concluded that the new legislation will certainly help to highlight the issues facing women in shipping.

The winning photographs in each category were from Grace Pragassen (Under 12s) Martin Hsu (12-18) Andrew McAlpine (over 18) and Andrew Sassoli Walker (Professional photographer).

Sue Terpilowski OBE, president of WISTA UK and managing director of Image Line Communications, said that the aim of the initiative is to “help younger people overcome generational sea blindness by channelling their thoughts and skills into these great competitions. If we can get them thinking about the industry then it may spark interest in developing maritime careers further down the line. The future lifeblood of our industry lies in the hands of tomorrow’s youth.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Image Line Communications .