News: Maritime UK welcomes Pacific Nuclear Transport Limited as eighth Charter company

Maritime UK, the industry body for the maritime sector, has announced Pacific Nuclear Transport Limited (PNTL) as the eighth company to gain Charter certification as part of the Diversity in Maritime programme.

In September 2019, Maritime UK launched the Women in Maritime Charter as the centrepiece of its efforts to boost gender diversity across the maritime sector. Eight companies have now gained Charter status: Bruntons Propellers, Shoreham Port, Fleetwood Nautical Campus, MFB Solicitors, Royal Fleet Auxiliary, Hutchison Ports, IHS Markit and PNTL.

In May 2020, the Diversity in Maritime programme was launched with the aim of building on the foundations laid by Women in Maritime and widening the scope to look at other areas of diversity. This included the activation of a LGBT+ in Maritime and Mental Health in Maritime Network as well as growing the Women in Maritime Network.

The Charter initiative is a major, robust, undertaking as it holds companies accountable for closing the gender gap. To gain certification companies must share their baseline data including the total proportion of women in the company and in areas including middle and senior management. Companies are provided with the option of setting target data for either five or ten years. The targets form a large part of individual company action plans, which also include commitments by the company to implement specific projects and initiatives. Through the life of the programme, Maritime UK regularly engages with charter companies to assess progress and identify areas for new programmes and activity whilst providing a platform to share best practice and challenges with others.

There are currently eight female employees in PNTL’s ranks, with three in management positions. Actions included in PNTL’s plan include updating all personal protective equipment to ensure there are more female friendly sizes and celebrating International Women’s Day across the workforce to help develop company culture. PNTL is committed to a wider diversity agenda and has undertaken to offer leadership training for PNTL Officers and providing mental health awareness training for all crew with all masters being trained to level 3.

Charter companies are supported by Maritime UK’s Diversity in Maritime programme and supported by a wealth of resources, toolkits, programmes and mentors. These include:

• Online toolkit: a continuously updated online toolkit with best practice guides and policies
• Interview Pool: which loans maritime women to companies that may lack diversity on interview panels. Research by the Women in Maritime Network identified all that more diverse interview panels or panels with HR professionals with diversity are more likely to recruit a diverse workforce. However, several smaller companies highlighted that they do not have access to such recruiters within their staff. The interview pool provides a facility for these companies to access relevant skills and expertise
• Speaker Bank: provides a database of women speakers for panels and conferences. Through its work, the Women in Maritime Network heard that many conference organisers claimed that they were unable to identify women to speak on a relevant topic at events. The speaker bank will be expanded to cover a wider-diversity agenda with industry speaker specialising in LGBT+, Mental Health and BAME and will continue to tag speakers with areas of industry expertise.

The first step to becoming a Charter Company is to sign the Pledge. Over 120 companies has now been signed a statement of intent to demonstrate commitment by companies to making progress on diversity.

Sue Terpilowski, Chair of the Women in Maritime Network said:

“I am proud to celebrate Pacific Nuclear Transport Ltd becoming the newest company to join the Charter family. Women’s equality cannot wait, and we believe achieving a balanced workforce at all levels in the maritime sector will undoubtedly improve culture, behaviour, outcomes, profitability and productivity. We look forward to welcoming other companies into the programme”

Harry Theochari, Chair of Maritime UK said:

“We were determined that our diversity programmes will be robust and meaningful. We look forward to continuing to work with our Charter Companies to deliver these ambitious action plans. To deliver against our ambitions, including Maritime 2050, our sector must have access to a diversity of thought and talent. To thrive, we need to succeed on diversity, and we now call on other companies to join our Diversity in Maritime programme.”