LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM / AGILITYPR.NEWS / January 21, 2026 / Maritime union, RMT has rejected a 4.5% pay offer for seafarers employed by the Royal Fleet Auxiliary (RFA), describing it as wholly inadequate and failing to address years of below-inflation offers, minimum wage concerns and a growing retention crisis across the service.

RMT says successive pay deals below RPI have significantly eroded earnings, with RFA management unable to demonstrate that pay rates comply with the legal minimum wage once the actual hours worked by seafarers are taken into account.

Seafarers can routinely work up to 12 hours a day and there remains no clear or transparent formula setting out how pay is calculated against those hours.

During previous industrial action, some of the lowest-paid RFA workers faced deductions of £87 for a single day, showing how little RFA management believed they were being paid.

RMT General Secretary Eddie Dempsey said: “This pay offer falls short of our members expectations based on their years of dedication and service.

"Years of real terms falling behind in pay have left RFA seafarers worse off, and management still cannot show if all of our members are even being paid at least the minimum wage for the hours they are required to work.

“The absence of a transparent system for calculating pay, combined with excessive working hours, has created an unsustainable situation.

"Skilled and experienced seafarers doing incredibly important and often dangerous work around the globe are leaving the service because they cannot afford to stay, creating serious retention problems that threaten RFA's effectiveness.

"Our members deserve a pay deal that reflects the work they do, deals with the issue around complying with legal minimum standards, and addresses the recruitment and retention crisis now facing the service.”

The RFA strike ballot closes on 17 February.

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