MCA paying just slightly above minimum wage for a MARITIME OPERATIONS OFFICER...

[Waaarrrggghhh]

https://www.civilservicejobs.service.gov.uk/csr/index.cgi?SID=b3duZXJ0eXBlPWZhaXImb3duZXI9NTA3MDAw MCZqb2JsaXN0X3ZpZXdfdmFjPTE4MzcyNjEmcGFnZWNsYXNzPU pvYnMmc2VhcmNocGFnZT0xJnBhZ2VhY3Rpb249dmlld3ZhY2J5 am9ibGlzdCZ1c2Vyc2VhcmNoY29udGV4dD0yNDkxMDc4NiZzZW FyY2hzb3J0PXNjb3JlJnJlcXNpZz0xNjc1ODYwNTg3LWYwY2Jm Njk2ZWRiMThkZjViMzUxYmJjM2UyZTZiYTk5NDQ4ZTJjMTk=

£22,497 equals (assuming full time) £10.81 an hour. For a role where you are tasked with an essential role in maritime search and rescue coordination and also providing 'essential maritime safety advice' over radio. There appears to be an 'allowance' of just above £5000 but its unclear if you would get the full amount or just some of it or however many nights you do. The base rate is just shocking for the level of responsibility this job carries.

You actually get more stacking shelves for crying out loud. Sainsburys is soon to raise their staff pay to £11p/h.

on top of that a 750 word personal statement and a 2 stage selection process. they're out of their mind.

[agibbs98]

Allowances like this are almost always worded like this as the amount isn’t in with your base salary and brings benefits to the company keeping it separate - for example it might not be pensionable. It is also very easy to suddenly remove it or lower it, as it’s not the salary. But the allowance is paid regardless. So this job is just under £28k.

It appears to be a very similar job to a 999 call handler, and has a similar wage which I suspect isn’t coincidence. It doesn’t appear to be for any kind of professional, just anybody that can be trained to do the job. £28k for a school leaver is pretty good, for anyone else it’s likely a good stepping stone.

[Waaarrrggghhh]

I should hope so that the entire allowance is included but thats still a bit of a shady business tactic. And yeah 999 call handler on a similar wage plus unsocial rates as well.

[agibbs98]

It’s a thing that annoys me 95% and makes sense to me 5%, so rant incoming.

Another phrase more commonly used is “shift allowance”, which is how it is for the majority of shift jobs in the UK. The justification is that if an employee suddenly stops working shifts, you don’t pay them the extra they get for working shifts. I agree and disagree with it to be honest, but it’s more negative for the employee than the employer.

It works when you suddenly get some idiot using every excuse in the book to avoid working weekends or bank holidays, as they’ll find themselves earning less. It seems on land this is extremely common. When it is used correctly it does mean you are paid fairly for your shift work, for example if you have a dayshift Mon-Fri maintenance technician on £38k and a shift working maintenance technician in the same company on £50k it’s clear that the reward is there. But many jobs will just happily advertise for shift maintenance technicians saying “£42k including shift allowance” which means the shift worker’s actual salary could be far less than the day worker, thus losing pension benefits.

It can be used against the employees, especially during industrial action it’s been known for employers to suddenly remove it and in doing so removing the obligation for their workers to work shifts - so legally acceptable, but they know their employees were there working nights for that extra money, so it pressures the employee to stop industrial action. It also isn’t accepted by every bank for mortgage applications, as they’re aware it’s not guaranteed earnings. Even if your shift allowance is in your contract they don’t seem to be open to discussion on the matter, which is a situation I’ve been in. If you’re in a final salary pension scheme, which I assume the job you’ve posted is, it’s also unlikely to be a part of the final salary calculation when you retire. I assume for a normal DC pension the employer’s contribution will only be a percentage of the salary, excluding the shift allowance.

tl;dr a good employer should just pay shift workers the extra money and call that the salary, so there is no pitfalls for the worker.

[Blueblisteringbarnacles]

Interesting to learn of these.
Thanks for posting these pieces of information. I have always been curious as to how the MCA actually works. i.e. The view from the inside.
My guess is that work loads and pressures at MCA will be more manageable compared to a 'regular' shore job at a ship manager's office? And less travel?