Coastguard CEO faces formal no confidence vote after GMB members’ call for independent review

The chief executive of the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA), Virginia McVea, faces a formal vote of no confidence following plans to stop remuneration payments to lifesaving volunteers.

The MCA sought to move its coastguard rescue teams to an expenses-only volunteer model, but plans to stop paying volunteer coastguards were dropped after a backlash.

Currently, coastguard rescue officers (CROs) are paid an hourly rate during callouts, but the MCA wanted to scrap those payments so it could classify them as volunteers. However, the Government said the plans would be dropped after fears it would see swathes of officers stop working with the service.

Transport minister Keir Mather said he had listened to the views of CROs and that a move to an expenses-only model would not go ahead. It came after a Court of Appeal verdict saw the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) say it would move to a “revised volunteer model”, after a judge ruled against it over whether coastguard members are volunteers or paid workers.

The Transport Minister also refused to say he had confidence in the chief executive of the MCA, when given the opportunity to do so by shadow transport minister Jerome Mayhew in the House of Commons. Mr Mather said he wanted to get any replacement system “right”.

Now, in a letter to Lord Simon Stevens, Chair of the Maritime and Coastguard Agency Board, the GMB union’s coastguard members have written to formally express their lack of confidence in the leadership of the Maritime and Coastguard Agency under Chief Executive Virginia McVea.

In the letter to Lord Simon Stevens, the GMB’s coastguard members wrote to ‘formally express our lack of confidence in the leadership of the Maritime and Coastguard Agency under Chief Executive Virginia McVea’.

The coastguards also called on the board to undertake an independent review of the concerns, including:

• A perceived failure to adequately engage with and listen to the experiences and concerns of Coastguard Rescue Officers.
• Insufficient transparency in decision-making processes affecting frontline personnel
• A culture in which legitimate concerns raised by Coastguard Rescue Officers are not addressed in a timely or meaningful manner.
• Decisions and policies that have negatively affected morale, recruitment, retention, and confidence within Coastguard Rescue Teams.
• Concerns regarding leadership accountability and responsiveness to issues raised by frontline operational personnel.

Nicola Savage, GMB National Officer said:

These workers are the face of HM Coastguard in communities across the United Kingdom. They give their time, skills, and commitment to save lives across the country. But they need to feel backed to the hilt by the MCA and, under Ms McVea’s stewardship, they don’t. Given the farce of the renumeration payments, coastguards feel a fresh start is the only way to reinstate that trust.