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The Race Discrimination Act has been in force since 1976. It was seen as a much needed reform and described as a ground breaking piece of legislation but like every Act it had its flaws.

Remarkably, discrimination against seafarers was permitted under the original Act and it’s still permitted today – even for seamen sailing on British flagged ships trading between British ports.

Exemptions for seafarers means that two people working on the same ship and doing the same job can be paid vastly different salaries simply by virtue of their nationality and non UK seafarers are often paid at rates far below the minimum statutory wage.

I was a big supporter of Minimum Wage Bill and I’m proud that it was a Labour Government that delivered it - but sadly it’s another piece of legislation that doesn’t apply universally in the merchant marine and that’s why I’m fighting for reform because this is a fight for right.

I’ve been campaigning to reform the Race Discrimination Act since my Merchant Navy days and since being elected to Parliament in 1997 I’ve had further opportunities to lobby for change but successive governments – going back to 1976 – have resisted.

Then, in 2005 after further campaigning the Department of Transport promised proposals for reform and a consultation paper setting out the options for reform was finally published in March 2007 but no proposals were forthcoming because Ministers said changes would be brought forward in the Single Equality Bill but this didn’t happen. I then attempted to add the changes to the Employment Bill but my amendments were talked out.

These flaws in the law are allowing real exploitation of foreign seafarers around our coast and that’s wrong but unless we can close the loopholes the consequences for British shipping jobs could be dire and even the jobs of our local seafarers sailing on our cross channel ferries will be at severe risk. With some ferry operators fighting for survival there will be strong pressures to bring in foreign labour on poverty pay and undercut our local force.

Some people have described the exploitation allowed by the loopholes as a charter for slave labour. For example, ratings sailing on Streamline ships between Aberdeen and Lerwick are receiving a basic salary of as little as £314 which is only a little over one third of the Minimum Wage for a 40 hour week and some seafarers working for Varun Shipping Company in the off shore oil sector on hourly rates of just £1.72.

It’s high time we put an end to this exploitation and that’s why I’ve been working with the RMT, Nautilus International and the TUC to close the loopholes. I’ve had tough talking meetings with a series of Secretaries of State and Ministers in attempts to close the loopholes in the law and this week I’ve tabled new amendments to the Equality Bill which are designed to end this disgraceful discrimination against seafarers. There’s no guarantee that they will succeed – but the fight for right goes on..