Monthly news and views on shipping, offshore and transport recruitment - commercial, technical, legal and insurance

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IN THIS ISSUE

Welcome
Jobs
Sex discrimination good, age discrimination bad?
One minute manager
Environmental salvage
Spinnaker poll
Seagoing jobs
Earn £400
Current Vacancies

WELCOME

The sentiment in the shipping market has been consistently upbeat in 2006 with earnings dropping less than 10% from the heady days of 2005. In a cyclical market like ours that represents a small drop.

The million dollar question is of course whether the bull run will continue throughout 2007. Owners scrapped less than 1% of the world fleet last year and with current freight rates who can blame them? In contrast the newbuilding order book for bulkers and tankers jumped by 25% and 58% respectively. This means that demand for tonnage will need to meet the expectations of those beefing up their fleets to avoid a slump in rates over the medium term. As crystal ball gazing is not a speciality of ours we'll have to wait and see what happens but perhaps 2007 will be seen as a crucial period in the supply / demand balance on which we all rely!

Coming back down to the much more modest business of recruitment we would like to welcome a new member of our team. Nicola Wood joins us having conquered the world of civil engineering recruitment and will be primarily responsible for our development in Singapore. Nicola has already shamed us with her professionalism and I'm sure she will be a huge asset to our team. If you're in Singapore and would like to start a discussion about how Spinnaker can help add value to your business why not contact Nicola direct at nwood@shippingjobs.com.

JOBS

"The field of engineering which addresses how we can apply our acquired wealth of knowledge to conceive of, design, test, build and operate ships." If this sounds complicated it probably means you're like the rest of us. However, if it sounds right up your street we're guessing you're a naval architect and this means you're in demand. We've got a variety of roles from newly qualified right up to senior level so give us a call if you're ready for a move.

We're also looking for, amongst others, Dry Cargo Freight Operators for an international energy commodities group in London, Superintendents for all vessel types in Hamburg, a contracts manager in Cameroon and a CEO in Dubai.

This is just the tip of the iceberg. For the complete list of all 106 positions see the bottom of the page.

SEX DISCRIMINATION GOOD, AGE DISCRIMINATION BAD?

George Orwell would have had a field day with this one!

Women who take time out of their careers to care for their children have no automatic right to the same rate of pay as male colleagues who have not taken career breaks. So said the European Court of Justice recently. But it seems they might just do if they are "older" women.

Bernadette Cadman, a health inspector working for the Health and Safety Executive, argued that her employers were breaching the Equal Pay Act because she is paid £9,000 less than male colleagues who are doing the same job as her. The Equal Pay Act gives employees the right to the same contractual pay and benefits as a person of the opposite sex working in the same job, or a job that the Employment Tribunal considers to be of 'equal value'.

If employers cannot "objectively justify" any differences the Employment Tribunal can order the employer to pay the complainant the same pay and benefits as the person who does the same or equal work (plus up to six years' back pay).

Cadman's case clarifies that it is possible for employers to continue using service-related pay scales and benefits without that automatically being discriminatory under the Equal Pay Act. Claimants can still challenge employers where there are "serious doubts" about whether length of service allows another employee to do the job better than a less experienced colleague. If the employee can show that length of service is irrelevant, for example because they have similar levels of experience gained with another employer, then they may have a claim for back pay.

But what about age discrimination legislation which outlaws age discrimination in relation to employment and training? The law allows service-related benefits for up to five years of employment, but any benefits linked to service beyond five years have to be "objectively justified" by the employer on the grounds of business needs.

The moral of the story? Well, you'd better be pretty sure that a pay and benefits system based on length of service reflects reality, i.e. that the longer someone is in the job the better they really can do that job, and that your business' needs justify keeping the system in place. If in doubt (And how could you be, it's as clear as mud?), we suggest reviewing your system before some young-old-man-woman goes after you.

ONE MINUTE MANAGER

This is in fact a title of a book and not a description of the time it takes for a manager at Spinnaker to get to the pub.

We're normally not in the business of recommending books but this is one that takes less than an hour to read and produces big results in productivity and performance. It is a deceptively simple book about managing people that will stick with you for a long time.

Full details as follows:
The One Minute Manager (Paperback) by Ph.D. Kenneth Blanchard, M.D. Spencer Johnson.

ENVIRONMENTAL SALVAGE

The ancient legal right to claim an award for salvage services rendered to property in danger on the seas has historically been restricted to claims against the ship and cargo salved. Whilst in recent times the skill and effort of the salvor to prevent or minimise damage to the environment has been one of the ten elements to be taken into account in accessing the award against ship and cargo, the actual award is still capped by the value of the salved property.

Salvors say they believe, that in addition to the traditional award against ship and cargo, an environmental award should also be made to reflect any benefit conferred on the environment,. Further, they maintain if the salvage industry were to be given such encouragement, the environment would be better protected. These issues and arguments will be presented by an informed panel and the pros and cons discussed in an open forum.

The London Shipping Law Centre presents the third event in the 2006-2007 lecture programme - "Environmental Salvage".

Issues to be discussed include:
* Why are environmental salvage awards needed ?
* How could they benefit the shipping community ?
* How could they be assessed ?
* Who would pay them ?
* How could such a change be achieved ?

Panellists:
Arnold Witte the Vice-President of The International Salvage Union
Archie Bishop - Holman Fenwick & Willan
Måns Jacobsson - Immediate past Director of the IOPC Fund
Charles Hume - Chairman of the Salvage Committee of the Int. Group

Chairman: John Reeder QC - Lloyd's Appeal Arbitrator

Wednesday 17th January 2007, 5.30 for 6.00pm
Venue: Holman Fenwick & Willan, Marlow House, Lloyds Avenue, London, EC3

There will be a video link with Professor John Hare and his students at Cape Town University by courtesy of their sponsor Smit International SA

Accredited for 2CPD hours

For further info and to book your place go to http://www.london-shipping-law.com/events/EventsResultList_current.asp.

SPINNAKER POLL

Spinnaker run a series of online surveys designed to provide a snapshot of opinion regarding issues of current interest to both employers and employees.

Last month we looked at the changes that companies have made in response to recruitment difficulties.

Of the 723 who took part 17% have "recruited overseas "as a means of responding to recruitment challenges. This represents the largest group with "Offering candidates extra ways of applying for vacancies, such as by e-mail" following with 13% of the vote. After that "Being willing to be flexible in the recruitment methods used", "Increasing starting salaries or benefits packages", "Attempts to speed up the recruitment process" and "Being more flexible about recruitment criteria in terms of skills required" all grabbed about 10% of the vote each.

It is perhaps interesting that "Offering candidates extra ways of applying for vacancies, such as by e-mail" was placed so high up in the list of solutions offered when in our opinion that was perhaps the lease effective (although easiest to implement).

However I think we can all agree that there is no "silver bullet" when it comes to tackling recruitment in the current climate and a variety of measures is often what is needed.

Full results can be seen at http://www.questionpro.com/akira/ShowResults?id=588195&mode=data. We hope they can give you some food for thought when it comes to planning your recruitment strategy in the coming year.

This month we're asking our respondents about their use of testing as part of the selection process. Personality questionnaires, general ability tests, literacy/numeracy tests, and tests of specific skills are all common but which are most widely used in shipping? To participate please go to www.shippingjobs.com and wait for the pop-up.

SEAGOING JOBS

ShiptalkJOBS.com, the new online seagoing recruitment portal, has made the first of many appointments, with Anneley Pickles, former Commercial Sales Manager of Lloyd's Marine Intelligence Unit, being appointed as Managing Director.

As the shortage of personnel worsens, and as the scarcity of "skilled seafarers" approaches a critical point, www.shiptalkjobs.com has been created to help individual seafarers find their preferred jobs at sea, and for employers and recruitment agents to find the right seafarers to fill their seagoing vacancies.

Upon her appointment, Anneley stated that, "the seagoing recruitment game has become too fragmented, with too little communication between all the players".

She added, "There is natural competition for the dwindling supply of personnel, but at present many of these valuable resources, the seafarers themselves, do not know where to turn."

If your bag is crewing Spinnaker can heartily recommend ShiptalkJOBS as a good resource for finding quality seafarers.

EARN £400

Below is a list of vacancies currently available. However, if you are not interested or not suitable for any of these positions but you know someone who might be interested, you can EARN YOURSELF A £400 referral fee by passing details of the vacancy onto them.

You simply need to go to http://www.shippingjobs.com/jobseekers/referral_scheme.asp and complete our simple form giving us details of the person you have referred the job to. Subject to the terms of the scheme, if that person gets the job, you get £400. Simple.

(Please note that those marked with an 'AD' reference are advertised directly by the client and are therefore not eligible for the scheme.)

CURRENT VACANCIES