Cross-Channel ferry crews guaranteed minimum-wage pay from 1 December

Operators of ferry and freight services between the United Kingdom and France or the Channel Islands must pay crew at least the equivalent of the National Minimum WageLegislation and roster them within statutory tour limits from 1 December 2026Legislation. The Seafarers (Wages and Working Conditions) Regulations 2026 (SI 2026 No. 1160)Legislation, made on 2 November and laid before Parliament on 4 November, deliver the pay and working-conditions limbs of the mandatory Seafarers' Charter for services calling at a United Kingdom port at least 120 times in a yearLegislation. The first compliance year starts on 1 December 2026.Legislation

The pay floor covers non-qualifying seafarers: crew who do not qualify for the National Minimum Wage because they do not ordinarily work in the United Kingdom.Legislation They must be remunerated for work on a covered service at no less than the national minimum wage equivalentLegislation: £12.71 an hour for those aged 21 or over, £10.85 for 18- to 20-year-olds, and £8.00 for under-18s and apprentices, with the applicable rate fixed on the first day of each monthly (or shorter) pay reference period. Detailed rules allocate remuneration and count hours across salaried-hours, time and unmeasured work, and keep items such as tips, benefits in kind and salary premiums outside the calculation.

The tour limits apply to seafarers generally on the covered services.Legislation Nobody may spend more than 14 consecutive days on board while working, or more than 21 consecutive days where training forms part of the time on board, with no more than 14 of those days spent working.Legislation Every spell on board must be followed by a rest period at least as long as the time spent on boardLegislation, during which the seafarer cannot be required to work, be available for work or remain on board. The caps may be exceeded only where circumstances beyond the operator's control, and whose consequences could not reasonably have been avoided, make it unavoidable.

Harbour authorities police the regime through declarations. Once an authority has reasonable grounds to believe a covered service will enter, or has entered, its harbour at least 120 times in the relevant year, it must request remuneration and safe-working declarations within 28 days; the operator must respond within three months using the statutory forms. Operating a service inconsistently with a declaration, or providing a false or misleading declaration about past operation, may be a criminal offence. Breach brings a per-entry surcharge set by a tonnage tariff: 9p or 18p a tonne for pay breaches (vessels certified for 12 or fewer passengers, or for more) up to 50,000 tonnes, and 20p or 40p a tonne for working-conditions breaches, with a small additional rate above that tonnage; surcharges are payable within 60 days, published by the Secretary of State, and open to objection within 28 days. Unpaid surcharges lead to the service's ships being refused harbour access until payment is made.

The measure mirrors French requirements already imposed on United Kingdom–France ro-pax services and extends equivalent protection to Channel Islands routesLegislation, following a consultation launched on 5 June 2026; it replaces reliance on the voluntary Seafarers' Charter of July 2023. For these services the new Regulations displace the equivalent pay rules in the Seafarers' Wages Regulations 2024, and the Secretary of State must review them, with the first report due within five years. Legal basis: the Seafarers (Wages and Working Conditions) Act 2023, as amended by the Employment Rights Act 2025, sections 4A to 4F, 9 to 11 and 16A to 19.