Status of Pilots: United Kingdom 2005

The United Kingdom pilotage service is undertaken by employed and self-employed pilots, under the provisions of the Pilotage Act 1987. Each port or harbour is deemed, by this statute, to be a Competent Harbour Authority (CHA) for the purpose of pilotage within its own area. A Port Marine Safety Code which is intended to herald a new approach to the management of safety in ports was introduced by the Minister for Shipping on 13th March 2000. The majority of ports are privately owned companies (companies whose shares can be bought through the stock exchange) with statutory harbour responsibilities. The Pilotage Act requires a CHA to keep under consideration what pilotage services need to be provided, if any, to secure the navigation of ships in their harbour and its approaches. The CHA's are required to consider:
l. Whether pilotage should be compulsory and if so for what classes of ships.
2. The qualifications and number of people offering themselves for authorisation as pilots within their area of jurisdiction.
3. The regulation of their authorised pilots
4. The provision of pilot boats to the approved standard with adequate manning. Boating services however may be, sub-contracted out”.
5.The granting of Pilotage Exemption Certificates to Masters or First Mates of ships.
6. The charges to be levied for the provision of Pilotage Services.
The CHA also decide whether they wish to have employed or self-employed pilots. Particularly in smaller ports progressively more pilots are taking on a multi-purpose role, for instance as harbourmaster or assistant harbourmaster, in addition to their pilotage duties. Recently, pilots in a few larger ports have also taken on VTS duties. All contracts are negotiated locally between pilots and their CHA. The CHA determines the recruitment criteria for pilots, the training scheme (both initial and ongoing training) the authorisation and examination criteria. The CHA have sole responsibility for issuing pilotage authorizations. These parameters also apply to the issue of PECs.
Each CHA is a self-contained unit and therefore in direct competition with other CHA's in attracting trade. CHA's also provide the pilot boats and set the overall tariffs accordingly.
Pilots in larger districts are organised in associations or companies, as are smaller self-employed districts; in the smaller employed districts usually no formal local organisation exists. Pilot companies are based on various forms of co-operative where individual members are self-employed. Local associations are autonomous and their precise constitutions vary.

The national association is the United Kingdom Maritime Pilots’ Association
The UKMPA is a Section of the Transport and General Workers Union (T&G). Within the T&G membership of the UKMPA is open to all United Kingdom authorised pilots, United Kingdom certificated deep-sea pilots and trainee pilots. The membership elects a national committee consisting of a Chairman, Vice-Chairman, and six ordinary members. Elections are arranged to ensure representation from throughout the United Kingdom by dividing the nation into six geographical regions. Each region is entitled to a minimum of one representative on the committee. A national delegate conference is held each year, usually in November, when in addition to reports, resolutions and debates, elections are held for at least 2 of the section committee places.

Number of Pilots - 550 District Pilots approximate (3% part time – some dual role)
- 26 Deep Sea Pilots (approximate) (North Sea/English Channel)
- (Currently there is 1 female pilot among the UKMPA Pilots)
- U.K.M.P.A. membership is currently 488 (as at 31/03/2005).

EMPA-Membership
When EMPA was established in 1963 there were two United Kingdom marine pilot organisations, the United Kingdom Pilots Association and the Marine Pilotage Branch (MPB) of the TG. The UKPA, representing two thirds of United Kingdom pilots, attended the inaugural EMPA meeting, but needed the constitutional authority of its national conference before joining. Accordingly the UKPA officially joined in 1964. The MPB joined in 1968. In 1984 the UKPA and the MPB amalgamated to form the UKPA(M). Although not initially within the T&G the UKPA(M) became a section of the T&G a couple of years later. In the year 2001 the UKPA(M) was renamed the UKMPA.

Minimum Qualifications
There are no national minimum qualifications. Existing pilots usually have Masters Foreign-going (MFG) tickets, or equivalent, or became pilots through an apprentice pilot system. Since 1988 each CHA has set its own requirements and although the majority still require MFG tickets others have accepted recruits with coastal qualifications or from the ranks of port control officers. Initial training periods appear typically to be six months. The training period, after examination, leads usually to a restricted size/tonnage authorisation, and depending on the range of vessels frequenting the port, the pilot will progress through 2 to 4 classes of size/tonnage authorisation over a period of 1 to 7 years. National Occupational Standards for Marine Pilots were accredited in July 2000.

Retirement
A national pilots' pension fund exists (PNPF) and some 243 (at end of January 2005) pilots are members. The fund is administered by an equal number of pilots' and ports' trustees. Since 1987 most CHA's who employ pilots have insisted on new pilots joining their own local company retirement schemes. This means that whilst nearly all self-employed pilots continue to be members of the national scheme the number of employed pilots is gradually decreasing.
In the PNPF the normal retiring age is from age 60 upwards, but from the 8th August 2002 the normal retiring age is now 65 for all new entrants to the PNPF. The usual maximum age for retirement is 65. It is however possible for a pilot to retire voluntarily, and to receive a pension, from the age of 50. For any member retiring after the 8th August 2002 the members immediate pension will be his deferred pension reduced at the rate of 5.5% p.a. for each month between the date of retirement and age 60. This will apply in all cases of voluntary early retirement between ages 50 and 60.
From the 8th August 2002 new member benefits are;
The scale of pensions will be 1/840th of Final Pension able Earnings for each month in the relevant period instead of 1/720th of Final Pension able Earnings.
Where the member takes an early retirement pension (other than an retirement due to permanent incapacity caused by ill health) the immediate pension will be the members deferred pension reduced at the rate of 3% p.a. for each month between age 60(or the retirement if later) and age 65 and at the rate of 5.5% p.a. for each month between the date of retirement (if before age 60) and age 60.
 
   
Two changes have been made to ill Health Retirement pensions, which will apply to any member who retires as a pilot after the 8th August 2002 and applies for an immediate ill-health retirement pension.
Such a pension will continue to be payable only where the member retires before Normal Retirement Age because of permanent incapacity caused by ill-health and has completed at least five years’ Pension able Service. First, the existing scale of ill health retirement pension (1/720th of Final Pension able Earnings for each complete month of a period comprising the period of service as a Member of the fund plus the period between the date of retirement and age 60) will only be payable where the Trustees are satisfied that the member’s incapacity renders him permanently incapable of undertaking any paid employment or self-employment whatsoever. In any case where the member retires because of permanent incapacity to be a pilot caused by ill-health, the member’s ill health retirement pension will be calculated as 1/720th of Final Pension able Earnings for each complete month of the period of service as a member of the fund only.
The second change will affect all ill health retirement pensions where the member retires after the 8th August 2002. Members entitled to ill health retirement pensions will be required to submit to regular health checks and to supply regular declarations of their earnings from any employment or self-employment. The Trustees will have the power to suspend or reduce a member’s ill-health retirement pension where the member is under age 60 and either the Trustees are satisfied that this medical condition has improved since his retirement or the Trustees consider that the member’s income from employment or self-employment, taken together with his pension from the fund, means that he is receiving more than his pension able earnings before he retired, increased in line with the rise in the Retail Prices Index since his retirement.Widow’s pensions are also provided, as are death in service lump sum payments of three times the pilot’s earnings. For new pilots in company pension schemes there are a similar range of benefits, but usually they are not as beneficial as in the PNPF.

Tariffs/Income
Tariffs are decided on a commercial basis in each CHA by the port authorities. These tariffs vary considerably.
Pilots' incomes in the United Kingdom cover a wide range and whilst the highest earnings are most commonly in the larger ports some pilots in smaller ports also have high earnings. The median level of pilots' earnings would appear to be comparable to a Master of a foreign-going vessel, but in this age of widely disparate salary levels for ships' masters comparisons are difficult.

Working Hours
A number of different duty systems operate in the United Kingdom. The main types of duty system are 12 or 24 hour watches or ‘x' full days on duty, followed by ‘y' full days off duty. In the latter type of system rest periods are acquired either, through gradual movement up a rota list, or (in some ports) by mandatory set periods of non-availability after each service.
Days free of duty vary on average from 100 to 170.

Pilot Stations
Pilot stations and pilot boats are in the main owned and operated by the CHA's. The costs of operating these services is generally included in the charges to vessels using the service of pilots In some ports exemption certificate holder are charged a fee per trip towards pilotage service costs.
Pilot stations may be manned by non-nautical personnel.

Compulsory Pilotage
The parameters for compulsory pilotage vary with each CHA under regulations called Pilotage Directions. Compulsory pilotage broadly is implemented by considering the length, tonnage or draft of a vessel. For example a vessel under 50 m in length may be considered non-compulsory by one CHA while another CHA may consider 75 m its compulsory limit. Similarly vessels under 2.5 m draft or 500 GT may be considered non-compulsory. Some ports operate a two level system of compulsory pilotage where vessels of a certain length, tonnage or draft are only compulsory in the inner harbour and non-compulsory in the outer harbour. Most CHA's apply stricter compulsory Directions for tankers and ships carrying hazardous or dangerous cargoes, but this is not a general rule. To sum up, the rules for, Compulsory Pilotage" are wide and varied, the Pilotage Act stating,if a CHA considers that in the interests of safety it should do so, it shall direct that pilotage shall be compulsory for ships navigating in any area or part of an area in relation to which its duty is exercisable".

P.E.C.'s
The Pilotage Act 1987 states that “a CHA on application by any person who is a bonafide Master or First Mate of any ship shall grant a PEC" with certain impositions. These impositions generally are similar to those required from a person applying for authorisation (pilot) but in practice an applicant for a PEC completes only a minimal number of trips in the CHA's area. One major UK oil port formerly required only one round trip to enable the master or first mate to obtain a PEC for a vessel up to a certain size, but since the Sea Empress grounding regulations have been made more stringent. PEC's can be obtained without examination, as to skill, knowledge, or use of English or, by examination, with or without a pilot on the examination panel. Many CHA's do operate a strict PEC regime with adequate trippage and strict examination, but some are very lax.
The size of a ship is no barrier to obtaining a PEC. There has been abuse of the PEC System in the UK stemming from the interpretation of the term, bona fide" with certain ferry and feeder container services operating, private" pilotage services.

Guaranteed Rest Time
There are many „working systems" in operation in the UK, thus many different periods of „rest time".
Many pilotage services work a watch system with both 12 and 24 hours on duty. The 24 hours watch is usually followed by several days off duty (3/4) and perhaps 3 periods of leave annually. The 12 hours watch system normally follows a 12-hour-on 12-hour-off pattern for a week by a week off duty.
However certain CHA's implement a, rolling roster" where pilots are on duty for a determined number of days followed by an appropriate days free from duty. On this system some ports do not have a, guaranteed rest period" but service ships as necessary. Others, for example, have 10 hours off duty after a night pilotage and 5 hours off after a daytime pilotage during duty periods.
Problems often arise in ports with numbers of pilots of 5or less; the smaller the number the bigger the problem obtaining rest periods and leave.
Since the introduction of the 1987 Act many CHA's require pilots to work overtime in their off-duty periods to maintain the service in the event of sickness and heavy traffic. This is usually on a non-compulsory basis.