UK ends Royal Fleet Auxiliary pay dispute after four strikes
The British government has reached agreement with unions on a pay increase for more than 1,750 civilian ratings, officers and apprentices of the Royal Fleet Auxiliary, ending a labour dispute that has disrupted the service repeatedly over the past two years. Personnel receive a 4.5% rise backdated to 1 April 2025 and a further 3.6% backdated to 1 April this year, a combined increase of 8.1%.
The settlement extends beyond pay. It includes improved leave arrangements allowing personnel to earn more time off for periods spent at sea, a one-off leave buy-back arrangement and a one-off payment. Leave terms matter disproportionately in this service, because the fundamental competitive problem is not only what the Royal Fleet Auxiliary pays but how long it keeps people away from home relative to the commercial alternatives available to the same seafarers.
Both the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers and Nautilus International have accepted the deal, which should end strikes that had become a recurring feature. Personnel staged two 24-hour strikes in May, and a further action planned for June was called off after the government tabled a revised offer. Four separate stoppages in two years is exceptional for a service whose ships supply the Royal Navy at sea.
The dispute sat on top of a staffing crisis. The organisation has been so short-handed that it has struggled to crew all of its assets, and has lost significant numbers of seafarers to the superior pay and conditions available in commercial shipping. That is the structural issue the settlement is meant to address, and it is a harder problem than the pay round itself: a service competing for the same certificated officers as the tanker and offshore sectors cannot resolve recruitment through a single backdated increase.
The scale of what is being sustained puts the figures in context. Established in 1905, the Royal Fleet Auxiliary now operates nine ships — tankers, landing ships and aviation support vessels — with a core mission of replenishing the Royal Navy at sea, and reports indicate that only six or seven are operational at any one time. Veterans and people minister Calvin Bailey said the resolution recognises the contribution members make and provides a foundation for the future. Whether it does so depends on retention over the coming year rather than on the ballot result.
