If you’re a seafarer currently at sea and you are reading this then I feel I am bound to ask why? You should be asleep! You need all the rest you can get at the appropriate times but in fact it seems your watch keeping patterns probably mean that you are catching the odd bit of shut eye whilst you are actually on watch. And that’s not just my view…

A new, far-reaching study into working patterns and fatigue at sea has produced some worrying results with firm evidence that the regular six hours on, six hours off watch roster is the most tiring and potentially dangerous, regularly causing seafarers to sleep while on duty.

The European Union (EU)-funded Horizon Project used simulators at Warsash Maritime Academy in the UK and Chalmers University in Gothenburg, Sweden to create real-life working situations and voyage plans in the hope of coming to a scientific understanding of fatigue at sea.

The Horizon Project also involved the following organisations from right across the industry:

Bureau Veritas; the European Transport Workers Federation; Standard P&I Club; European Community Shipowners’ Association; European Harbour Masters’ Committee; Intertanko; UK Maritime Accident Investigation Branch; European Maritime and Coastguard Agency; and The Stress Research Institute at Stockholm University.

A total of 90 seafarers took part in the research. They were all appropriately qualified, from deck and engineering departments, men and women, from west and east Europe, Africa and Asia. A good representative mix then.

The project aimed to examine the effects of working two of the most common watchkeeping patterns (six hours on, six hours off and four hours on, eight hours off) and tried to recreate as far as possible the kind of real life conditions you are faced with at sea such as port calls, drills, emergencies, interrupted off-watch periods, etc. The off watch periods included such interruptions as cargo operations, paperwork, inspections (maybe even ITF inspections…!), reading, watching TV. There was a mix of vigilance and workload levels, some of which were adrenaline fuelled (“man overboard”; close quarter situations with non-compliant vessels for example) and some of which were mundane (keeping the log book; marking positions on a chart, and so on).

Without going into too much detail here, scientific methods were used to monitor and measure performance and to assess the effects of the watchkeeping systems. In all of the watchkeeping systems monitored there was evidence of “full-blown sleep” whilst on watch. Incidences of sleep mainly occurred during the night and in the early morning hours towards the end of a watch.

Performance also suffered. Reaction time tests showed that reactions deteriorated during a watch and were markedly lower at the end of a night watch. Those working 6 on, 6 off got markedly less sleep than those working 4 on, 8 off.

The report also identifies many past accidents, sinkings, groundings, collisions, etc where fatigue was identified as a major cause. You can find the report by clicking on the following link:

http://www.itfseafarers.org/files/seealsodocs/33229/ProjectHorizonReport.pdf

Ask your company if they have seen the report and if they have any plans to implement any of its recommendations.

None of the results will be a surprise to any of you. If anyone is aware of the real situation at sea it is you who actually work there in reality. But any “scientifically measured” evidence of your reality which can be used to influence shipowners, operators, flag state and port state authorities to mitigate against fatigue or “sleepiness” has to be a good thing. Of course, you would probably say the solution is easy. Increase the size of the crew on board. And you won’t get an argument from me or the ITF. In fact, check your safe manning certificate. Then, if your vessel is covered by an ITF Agreement, check the agreed manning level in the CBA (the Collective Bargaining Agreement which must be kept on board and be available for you to see and read) and see if the crew list matches it. Quite often we find that the crew numbers are in line with the safe manning certificate but not in line with the manning level we have agreed with the company.

Anyway, it is intended that the results of the study be used to assist with ‘best practice’ standards and one of the main outcomes of the study is the development of a fatigue management “toolkit”. It’s essentially a computer programme that will allow you to enter your working schedule over a six week time frame along with other relevant information and receive a prediction of the most risky times and the likeliest times for sleepiness for each watch, as well as for the time outside of watch duty. Of course, there are also basic, common sense approaches to reducing the risk, many of which are operated at present.

However, I have been on numerous vessels where the recorded hours of work/rest are a fantasy and have little in common with the hours that are actually worked. Other ITF Inspectors tell me they also experience this. The seafarers and the head of department sign the record each month and that becomes the official version. We only have to get the log book to show that when the ship was tying up at 0200hrs the previous week there was only one man on deck and the other crew members required for that operation are recorded as “resting”.

We know the pressures you are under to make false declarations of hours worked. One Captain told me, “If I put my real hours down I would never be allowed to work at sea again…!” But until all seafarers take responsibility for truthfully recording their hours of work and rest in order that the problems can be identified and tackled, then we will always be battling against the issues of sleepiness and fatigue.

Be rested, stay awake and stay safe.

A lifetime ago, when I first went away to sea as a 16 year old deck boy, the idea of being able to maintain regular contact with home was just as absurd as only getting to spend one day in port and having no shore leave.

We used to write and receive letters (yes, with something called a pen which had ink inside and some white material called paper… we would write on the paper with the ink pen and then put the paper in a thing called an envelope and then post it). These days that system is now called “snail mail”. We just used to call it the mail.

We had a radio officer on the ship and we had telex. But our families at home had neither.

It was possible to make an international call from a telephone box ashore but the cost was prohibitive. And it just wasn’t something that ordinary working people tended to do.

But time marches on and things change, usually (and hopefully) for the better.

Now we have a wide variety of methods for communicating and hardly any of us actually write letters anymore.

We have email whereby we sit down, type a letter or short message on a computer and someone on the other side of the world receives it in an instant. And we can also send photographs! We can keep each other updated via social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter. We can even see the people we are talking to via things such as Skype. Most of us now carry the equivalent of a telephone box around with us in our pockets, a mobile telephone that fits in the palm of our hand. We can call whenever we like from wherever we want (provided we can get a strange thing called a signal). We can even type messages on our small mobile telephones and press a button and the person or people we are sending them to receive them on their mobile telephones, usually within seconds!

If I could show all this to the 16 year old deck boy I once was he would say it was magic, witchcraft, science fiction or just a dream of the future.

Yes, the future is here and there is no excuse not to be in touch. Communication now is easy.

Or is it? Well, a new survey carried out by the ITF Seafarers’ Trust and London Metropolitan University would suggest that for seafarers it is still not as easy as it should be. For example, access to digital technologies on board ship remains limited. Of those seafarers surveyed, 52% said they had no access to email on board. When it came to ratings only, this figure rose to 68%. Only 18% said they had on board access to a private email account. If you are on board a container vessel that spends a matter of hours in port, or a tanker that ties up to a jetty literally in the middle of nowhere then shore leave is very limited. Some crew just won’t get ashore. And when there is little or no access on board then meaningful communication remains just as difficult as it ever was.

Of course, these communication problems also present difficulties for the unions trying to organise seafarers. The survey clearly indicates that seafarers want more contact with their unions. This is more difficult at sea that when on leave. But when, for example, seafarers need help, information or guidance from their union, they are usually at sea.

It goes without saying that for unions to be more effective they need more seafarers to join them in the first place. But it is a sad indictment that only 50% of the seafarers surveyed who happened to be union members could actually provide the name of their union, which obviously points to a lack of awareness and a lack of contact from the union to the member.

Clearly many unions have a lot to do and the report provides suggestions for how improvements can be achieved.

If you are reading this then clearly you have some degree of access to the internet and have an interest in the issues that affect you and your colleagues. Therefore, it would be a good idea for you to read the report for yourself. You can find it at: http://www.itfglobal.org/seafarers/communicating-with-seafarers.cfm.

Also, please direct as many other seafarers as you can to this site and tell us what you think, about the report, about this website, and about the ITF. At the end of the day, we need to communicate by whatever methods we have. But we need to identify the methods which are most effective. It’s how we progress and it’s a two way thing. So keep in touch.

Have a good trip.

The other day I watched a short (3 mins) film which you can also see if you click on the link below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WG7_V2xOk9Q&NR=1

The film is made by a UK based seafarers’ charity and its purpose is to point out how dependent an island nation like the UK is on ships and seafarers – how much they are needed - and it asks people to think about seafarers in their time of need and to make a donation to the charity if they can in order that the charity can continue to help seafarers, or ex seafarers or their families.

The premise of the film is to question what would happen if all the ships and all the seafarers in the world were to suddenly disappear. It would lead to an almost immediate shortage of necessities like fuel, food, materials for medicine and so on, let alone the imported consumer desirables we all take for granted.

The film suggests there would be anarchy on the streets with people fighting for the few necessities left on the shelves. People would quickly start to go hungry. If it was winter they would be cold. Without ships there would be very little fuel to power the things we imagine will always be there. There would soon be no cars, no buses, no electricity or diesel for trains, no ambulances, no fire engines. No oil or gas for heat. No lights at night. And all of that is just for starters!

When I think of all the different types of cargo I see coming into the ports I cover, from coal to chemicals to gas and oil to fertilizer to help grow the food we don’t import, its pretty frightening just how reliant we are on imports. No wonder the film paints such a bleak picture for the UK when they, like many other countries including my own, rely on ships to bring in 90% of their imported goods. And, of course, we are all economically reliant on the goods we export. If we couldn’t export or import, that is trade our goods, the entire global economic system would go into meltdown.

In other words, if you all suddenly stopped doing the job you do, many parts of the world we consider “prosperous” would soon be facing apocalyptic conditions. Think about the collective power that gives you. Surely you should be amongst the highest paid and best regarded workers on the planet…

But no. Many of you will continue to be abandoned by shipowners and neither your own government, nor the flag state where the ship is registered, nor the authorities in the country where you are abandoned will do anything about it.

Many of you will go unpaid and your families will suffer simply because the owner or manager of your ship thinks they can get away with it.

Although you may be transporting food, many of you will go without decent food yourselves because the operator of your ship wants to keep costs as low as possible – and profits as high as possible.

Some of you will suffer injury or death as a result of accidents which occur because you are overworked and overtired or because safety has been compromised on the grounds of cost.

Over the past four years 62 of your colleagues have died as a direct result of piracy in the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean, through deliberate murder by pirates, suicide during the period of captivity, death from malnutrition and disease, death by drowning, or heart failure just after the hijacking. During this same period, over 3,500 of your colleagues have been kidnapped and held hostage by pirate gangs, who subject them to traumas such as being used as human shields, being forced to operate their ship as a pirate mother ship under pirate control, and to extreme mental as well as physical anguish. And although we want the goods you are trying to bring us, most of the world sits by and does nothing. In fact most of the world apart from those of us involved in the maritime industry will not even be aware that all of this goes on.

If ever the time comes when the seafarers of the world collectively say, “That’s it! We’ve had enough. We just want to be treated better. If you value your imports and exports you need to value us too. Not just some of us. All of us. And until you do we are not moving your goods…”, then I hope the world is prepared for the consequences.

I don’t know whether this makes me too pessimistic or too optimistic or both at the same time. Either way, it’s worth thinking about.

Safe sailing.

Dear Mr & Mrs Ship-owner,
 
I hope that you are fine and business and profits are improving after the credit crunch.
 
I write you this message to ask your kind attention for the following matter:
 
As an ITF inspector I have observed during the past years a change in the on board bureaucracy and the duties of the senior officers.
 
Ships offices are growing in dimensions, the number of shelves are expanding. The "paper tree" on board is growing. ISPS, ISM etc are booming and creating extra responsibilities and generating extra work load for the senior officers. And not to forget, the communication systems have changed a lot during the past years. Email in every port, even email in every corner of the 7 seas in case the vessel has access to the satellites above our heads.
 
Every vessel knows " half a dozen surveyors, including the ITF inspectorate" plus super intendents and agents, immigration and customs, owners and cargo representatives, ship chandlers etc. All are waiting for the vessel upon arrival in port. And all need to see the Captain or one of the chiefs. It does not matter if the senior officers have been occupied half of the night with navigating the vessel towards the port and berth. It does not matter if there is a crew change before noon and all related documents need to be prepared, or the vessel is scheduled for a change of command. It does matter that all papers are put in the correct files in the endless shelves and that all emails are replied to ASAP, 7 on 7, 24 on 24 and that every single surveyor, representative, visitor is welcomed and served as they arrive in the ship office.
 
And in all this I ask myself, where is the "radio officer"? Okay, I know that part of the job is nowadays done by the electricians or electronics officers on board and also partly by computers. And soon one may expect perhaps the first IT officers on board. But the part of the the radio transmissions, sending and receiving messages, is now done by the senior officers. And this e-communications and paperwork besides hosting every single visitor on board and taking care of the daily management on board is time consuming.
 
The other week one chief mate told me that he feels like an office clerk on board of a vessel and not a Seafarer. And that describes in general the feeling of many senior officers. Nowadays, vessels are in need of administration officers, office clerks. Only few vessels on the world wide tonnage have a designated officer on board to cover the administration, to  take care of the office work on board, to assist the captain and chiefs with all visitors. But plenty vessels do not have them. The extra duties are done by the Captain and his staff.
 
In the last decade ships are growing, communication technology is growing, cargo is growing, workload on board is growing, all is growing expect the number of crew on board. Crew on board and time in port is reducing. And it has started to reflect.
 
90 % of goods are transported over the water. With the rate of congestions on road, rail and air, transport over water will only grow. And for this we will need more Seafarers in a job which is, as some older seafarers describe, not romantic anymore. And for sure, the job is not attractive as it used to be anymore. Some sources are indicating there is now already a shortage of 40000 officers for the next years.
 
Having said this I want to ask you, Mrs and Mr Ship-owner, consider an administration officer on board of your fleet. Discuss this with your board of directors.

He or she will be warmly welcomed and highly appreciated on board of every single vessel.
 
Thanking you for your time and efforts and looking forward to seeing this position in the near future on the crew lists.
 
Best Regards,
An ITF Inspector

If I mention to you the International Maritime Organization (IMO), what do you think of?
 
Most of you reading this have heard of the IMO, and know that it is the organ of the United Nations that deals with shipping. Most of you will be aware of the various IMO instruments that apply to seafarers, each with its own now-familiar acronym, like STCW, SOLAS, MARPOL, etc. (Link to Inside the Issues: IMO/ILO).
 
The IMO seems to have its own language, one that most of us struggle to understand. There are these complicated, super-wordy international regulations, that appear to be drafted by grey people in grey suits, over months and months of debate that take place in a grey building in London (which itself is pretty grey for most of the year).
 
The IMO certainly brings huge benefits to seafarers, but it would be more helpful if its instruments were written in a way that made it easy for us mere-mortals to grasp. There they go again! Even the everyday word “instrument” has a meaning of its own in the foreign land that is the IMO.
 
The same goes for that other UN body, the International Labour Organization (ILO).
 
But for seafarers to know their rights, they first have to be able to understand them.
 
That is also why the ITF went to great lengths to create a guide for seafarers explaining the new Maritime Labour Convention (MLC), otherwise known as the Seafarers‚ Bill of Rights. This super-convention is such a key document and sets out so many minimums for crews. By translating the ILO-speak into simpler language, you will all be able to make sense of the MLC, know what it means for you and how you can use it. You can find a whole area of this website dedicated to the MLC, which sets out everything you need to know as a seafarer.
 
I hear on the ITF grapevine that there are also plans to re-issue the STCW guide to the STCW convention, to reflect the changes that were made to it that will come into force in 2017.
 
There are signs that the IMO is looking at the way it communicates. Lately it launched a new website, with a much more user-friendly layout and with links to Facebook and Twitter and YouTube. Really 21st century! It will be much easier to find that all-important Convention, if you are so inclined, or the list of the countries that have signed up to it (note: I tried to avoid using that typical IMO/ILO word “ratified”).
 
A more user-friendly website is a step in the right direction, but the IMO and ILO have a way to go before they produce instruments that are understood beyond the people that wrote them. Until then, the ITF will do what it can to help you crack the code.
 
Safe sailing.

As part of her research into life at sea Rose George, a British writer, examined the work of the ITF and shadowed inspectors Tommy Molloy and Jose Ortega. She has now published an interesting article on the subject in the UK’s Daily Telegraph, which can be seen at

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/8273847/Sea-no-evil-the-life-of-a-modern-sailor.html

Well, Year of the Seafarer is over. So, how was it for you? Have you noticed how much better things have been for you since it started? Has your job been made easier? Do you feel more valued? Do you get a warm welcome wherever you go?

Are there fireworks and waving flags put up in your honour whenever your ship enters port? Do people walk up to you in the street to thank you for taking the risks you do to bring them the goods they need – or crave – across the oceans? Sailing through storms; trying to avoid pirates; not getting paid correctly and sometimes not at all; worrying about being abandoned; risking criminalisation whenever anything goes wrong?

I would love to say that 2010, the Year of the Seafarer, marked a turning point in the world’s attitude to seafarers. But sadly I fear that for many (if not most) of you, Year of the Seafarer will have passed you by without consequence. It was a nice gesture, but what did it really achieve?

We inspectors are still regularly helping crews to recoup owed wages. There are still plenty of seafarers working way beyond the end of their contract, when they would much rather be at home with their families. It is still very difficult, if not impossible, for seafarers to even get ashore in many ports. There are still too many seafarers working too many hours and suffering the effects of fatigue. And, probably as a result, there are still far too many needless accidents, injuries and deaths at sea (it seems to be the International Year of the Substandard Shipowner every year!).

Locally, in one of the ports I cover, the port operator’s idea of celebrating the Year of the Seafarer was to stop the Seafarers’ Centre buses going into the container terminal to collect crews to take them to the Seafarers’ Centre or the city. They now have to telephone the port operator to ask if they can send their bus, which is shared with the stevedores. The seats are covered with the oil and filth from the stevedores’ overalls and it is almost inevitable that the seafarers’ shore clothes end up getting filthy before they have even got off the bus. Oh, and they are told that the stevedores have priority, so sometimes the bus doesn’t turn up at all. And we know how fast container turn-around times are, so the chance for shore leave disappears.

Don’t get me wrong. I think that declaring 2010 the international Year of the Seafarer was a well meaning and legitimate attempt to give you greater recognition and respect for the job you do. To make people think about the effort and risk involved when you transport the stuff they buy across the seas. To get them to appreciate you more. And I really hope those limited objectives have to some extent been achieved.

But real improvements for seafarers won’t magically happen with logos or events or PR. It is still as important as it ever has been for workers to join unions and get organised; to recognise that as seafarers you have rights that are easier to enforce if you stand together as one, the same as it is for any other group of workers.

For me it will only truly be the international Year of the Seafarer when it finally becomes a regular occurrence for crew calling at my port to say: “We will not move this ship to the next port until we are covered by decent terms and conditions of employment, have decent standards of health and safety, enough crew on board to allow us to have adequate rest and until the rights we have are truly respected.”

The official Year of the Seafarer might be over now, but we will continue to work as we always do to achieving the best for you, to bring you together and support you in your efforts to win and defend your rights. Because at the end of the day, it is your own solidarity that is your real strength.

For now, safe sailing.

In my country, and many others, we are almost at that time of year when almost all work stops for a few days. When families get together, swap gifts, eat too much and generally celebrate what is an important date in the Christian religious calendar.
 
As my fellow Inspectors and I go around ships at this time of year it’s easy to tell who might be paying off soon and going home for the holidays. There is a certain excitement in the air, an expectation and lots of smiles.
 
But there’s also an air of acceptance from those who know they must spend yet another Christmas away from their loved ones. Sometimes there’s even a sense of desperation, from those who thought they were going to be paying off in time to be home for Christmas, only for circumstances to change their fate. These crew members can, quite rightly, feel cruelly cheated and it’s difficult to think of anything to say that will be of any real comfort. It’s bad enough when this happens at any other time of the year, but it’s always worse at Christmas.
 
Also, at this time of year, we see representatives from various pastoral organisations going around ships and giving small presents to seafarers. If you are given one of these gifts don’t for a second think that this is some kind of charity. It isn’t. It’s just a small way for people to say thank you for your efforts all year round, but especially during periods when you would much rather be with your families and friends back home. It’s to let you know that you’re appreciated.
 
Many of the gifts we exchange at Christmas have at some point been carried on your ships. The same with the food we eat too much of. You may have been responsible for bringing us the fuel that keeps our homes warm and our cars running, or some other cargo that keeps our economy going and helps us to prosper.
 
So, if you are celebrating this Christmas at home with your family and friends, enjoy it as best you can. You deserve the break.
 
If, however you find yourself working on a ship over the Christmas period then we owe you and your family a big thank you for your efforts. The sacrifice you make by continuing to work benefits all of us and is hugely appreciated. Let’s hope you get lucky next time. But we’re sure you will make the best of things and will enjoy the holiday nonetheless.
 
If Christmas isn’t a part of your religious or cultural calendar, please accept the best wishes and thanks anyway from those of us for whom it has some meaning.
 
Stay safe and have a peaceful holiday.
 
 
 

Okay, I admit it, I’m getting old. I’ve been around helping seafarers long enough to have seen many changes and conditions for seafarers and global labour supply.

I can remember in the early 1990’s when a Chinese seafarer on a Hong Kong registered ship was paid $50 a month and a Captain made $250. Same thing for Russian, Romanian and Ukrainian seafarers.

I will always remember Indonesian seafarers sailing on some of the worst ships, under horrible conditions and terrible pay, if they got paid at all. But you know what, they would never complain, no matter how bad the conditions got. Then one day around early 1997 I got a request for assistance from an Indonesian crew, and then another one and another one. Suddenly I was getting more requests to help Indonesian crew than I was from all other nationalities combined.

There were two reasons. First, the appalling conditions the shipowners subjected these people too. Second, the seafarers could see that the authoritarian Suharto government was reeling from protests on the street. Before the complete collapse of his brutal regime there was an easing of some of the control structures. So the seafarers were confident they could complain and would not be beaten and jailed upon return to Jakarta.

Many shipowners chase around the world looking for the cheapest seafarers they can employ. Often they choose crew from countries where the national government has its hands on the throat of the people. That's why Burma is still a country where a shipowner can get a compliant crew, a crew that is cheap and that will not complain to the ITF or any other foreign agency. If they do complain there are severe punishments in place.

Only a couple of weeks ago I got a call from a church. I was asked to help a badly injured Burmese sailor. The guy was working one day when his feet were crushed in an incident. The bones in his feet have been shattered. The company wanted the man stabilized and then flown home to Burma as soon as possible. Sensing he wouldn’t get the best of care if he was sent back to Burma, he decided to stay.

His family were called into the office of the manning agency and told to convince him to drop his claims and to return at once to Burma. He has refused. And now the Burmese manning agency is requiring his family pay them close to $30,000.

Of course, we are not going to stand for this reprehensible behaviour. And just because we can’t do anything to the agency in Burma, we can go after the shipowner and his fleet of vessels and punish him for the misdeeds of his corrupt agents. Because after-all it is the shipowner who chose to take crew from a country that does not provide basic democratic rights for its workers and also has institutionalized severe punishments not only to seafarers, but also to their families.

Simply put: This is not acceptable and companies that choose to employ such crew and have no regard for their treatment and salary will be held to account by our 145 ITF Inspectors.

Last month the democratically elected leader of Burma was released from detention. She has been held by the Myanmar military dictatorship for 15 years. Her dedication to the welfare of the Burmese people should be matched.

I expect her release will result in some easing of authoritarian rule. The release of Aung San Suu Kyi might mean that more Burmese seafarers will have the right to complain and seek assistance in the event of hardship.

If it does, we will be there to help. If it doesn’t we will to continue to press the military government and shipowners who choose to employ Burmese crews through concerted actions.

We must act on our commitment to support the democratic ambitions of the people of Burma. Forced labour, torture, arbitrary arrests and imprisonment, denial of freedoms of expression and association should no longer be a daily reality for the Burmese people or Burmese seafarers.

If we ITF Inspectors continue to take this position, where we provide real assistance to the most vulnerable crew, we are taking a stand. Not only for Burmese seafarers and the people of Burma, but we are taking a stand for all the world’s exploited and harshly treated seafarers.

This is the way we keep standards at an acceptable level. If one group of the global labour supply can be exploited it keeps conditions down for everyone. It doesn't matter where you are from. Exploitation keeps all workers down. Together we continue to fight.

Safe sailing.

We Inspectors might be guilty of using the F word from time to time, but in this case we are talking about FAIR FERRIES.

Only a few weeks ago, trade union members from Belgium, France, the Netherlands, the UK and Ireland, joined by local ITF inspectors, targeted flag blind vessels from passenger and cargo ferry companies during a Fair and Safe Ferries for All action week.

This action week came after ITF affiliated unions met each other to discuss the growing reports to union reps from seafarers working many hours a week for wages far below the average acceptable minimum wages in Europe.

Another hot item reported by various ITF Inspectors and that was discussed is the increasing amount of seafarers who are instructed to do dockers’ work on board, inside the port or in open sea, without financial compensation and offering them less rest and less time for shore leave.

During the action week there was a rally and demonstration in front of the offices of a ferry company. There were meetings with ferry crews and passengers to explain what the campaign is about and emphasise the importance of stamping out ‘social dumping’ in the ferry and ro-ro sector.

All week ITF Inspectors, docker activists and union delegates visited lots of ferry and ro-ro vessels. They met with crews and dockers and talked about the problems that both groups of workers face, including the dangers and risks seafarers face when doing dock work at sea and in port.

On one ro-ro carrier it came to light that the crew had unlashed all the cargo for the port. Action was taken and the company agreed not to instruct their crew anymore to do cargo handling. And to make sure they kept their word the vessel was visited again a few days later in another port.

If you look at ITF inspection reports – before, during and since the action week – there is a visible trend that more and more seafarers are being instructed to lash or unlash high and heavy cargo, cars and trailers. On some ro-ro vessels the cargo is shifted during the voyage at sea. This is just unacceptable.

Reports also show that crew working on passenger ferries are working long hours without enough time to eat, or sleep, or take a break, or enjoy a couple of hours shore leave. Monkey business sometimes takes place with the working hours. Double sets of books. We all know what we are talking about and some of you will know who we are talking about. The terms and conditions for some crew are more like something you would expect to see during the dark ages than what is nowadays accepted as decent terms and conditions.

The industry often seems not to mind, believing that what they offer for the crew is enough and that every seafarer is happy in the slave job he is doing because they have been working for many years. They do not mention the other side of the picture, that often people must do it to make a living for loved ones and family. Makes me wonder how certain ship owners and crew managements can still look at themselves in the mirror.

This fair ferries campaign has just started. Further campaign initiatives will continue to target all ferry and ro-ro companies where social dumping and crew cargo handling activities are taking place. Unions are ready to put a stop to this. More rigorous inspections of vessels will take place in the future, flag blind, to sniff out social dumping and crew cargo handling. And where we find it, we will stamp it out.

If you have any comments, please react below.

For now, safe sailing all!

What can you do as a seafarer working on a ferry or ro/ro vessel to actively participate in this campaign?

If you are asked to handle cargo on board your vessel, tell us about it. Let us know what, where, when and tell us of the name of the vessel. If you are working on board of a vessel and you believe the terms and conditions of your contract are not equal or below “standards”, contact us.  You can share this information anonymously if it’s difficult for you to come forward.

DOCKER & SEAFARERS, together we are strong!

• Join us on Facebook and share your thoughts and ideas with thousands of dockers and seafarers http://www.facebook.com/dockers.seafarers. Over 1,000 dockers and seafarers have joined already.
• We also have a campaign blog, Fair Ferries Campaign blog http://fair-ferries.blogspot.com offering information for dockers and seafarers.
• Email dockers.seafarers@gmail.com.
  

When we launched our "End Piracy Now" petition, people said we would never be able to get half a million signatures in just 4 months. But now as we reach almost one million signatures, it's clear they underestimated how many people feel strongly about this issue, and what we can achieve when we work together.
 
We Inspectors have done our bit, collecting signatures from you during ship visits and in the ports. ITF unions have worked tirelessly, getting support not just from members but from the wider public too. And our industry co-sponsors and shipowners have contributed too, united in the common aim to end piracy.

The fruits of these efforts, the dozen or so boxes of signatures, will be handed over to the Secretary-General of the International Maritime Organisation today, World Maritime Day. The petition is also being sent to Ban Ki-Moon, Secretary-General of the United Nations.
 
Many methods were deployed in the efforts to promote the petition. People emailed and texted, blogged, Facebooked and Tweeted, posted links and published articles,
 
The link was emailed to every conceivable contact in the maritime industry and beyond. Thousands of text messages. Links to the petition were put on websites. Stories were published in union magazines.
 
Piracy might be a deadly serious subject, but that didn't mean that we couldn't do some fun stuff to get people interested in the issue. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WvqylEMr43Y&feature=player_embedded

Together, we have secured the support of almost a million people. Not just seafarers, not just trade unionists, not just people from the maritime industry. But nurses, office workers and other concerned citizens, who believe as we do that the world must act now to end piracy.
 
Let's hope they hear our million voices loud and clear.
 
 

In an effort to get closer to the seafarers we aim to represent, last month the ITF held an Expo for Seafarers. And where better to host the first event of its kind than at Luneta Park, in the heart of Manila and at the heart of the crewing industry worldwide. The timing also seemed perfect – 2010 has been declared the Year of the Seafarer by the IMO.

The Expo brought together ITF staff, inspectors and local unions AMOSUP and PSU to introduce seafarers to the ITF family, and also – more importantly – to listen to what they had to say. 
 

And there was plenty to hear! More than 3,000 seafarers came.
 

As an inspector I learnt a lot in those three days. Many times I had read and listened to stories from seafarers about Luneta Park… with its many manning agencies… about how many seafarers visit there each day looking for a job... Seeing it first hand was completely different. 
 

Being away from the ship, the port, the employer, being on the seafarers’ home soil, we had a chance to speak a little more openly than normal. We inspectors had to adapt to being the visitors for a change. And getting a flavour of Filipino culture will, I’m sure, help us to build better links with Filipino crews we meet in the future.

During those three days we talked to the seafarers about lots of things – about the meaning of the Year of the Seafarer, about our worldwide piracy petition, about this website. 
 

But more importantly, we had the chance to get face-to-face feedback from seafarers. Your worries, questions, experiences. You told us the positive side of being a seafarer – the travel, the money. And you talked to us about the down side and some of the challenges you face – being away from home, missing family and friends, long contracts, piracy, difficulties finding work, age discrimination, working hours and fatigue, the many documents and certificates required.
 

One of the questions I heard over and over again that week was about how to become a member of the ITF. There is a simple answer to that question. An individual worker cannot join the ITF. The ITF is a federation of unions, so to become a member of the ITF you need to join one of its affiliated trade unions. If you are employed on a vessel that has an ITF collective bargaining agreement, you will be a member of the ITF union that holds the agreement. Find out if your vessel is covered and see which union covers it.
 

But there is a deeper question. Often, in my job, I have the feeling that many seafarers think of the ITF as some kind of emergency service. But in reality it is crews themselves who solve their problems, by coming together to give each other power, to have their voices heard, to defend their rights and win improvements. We are just there to support. 
 

For the ITF and its unions to remain effective for seafarers, you need to play your part too. As crew members you need to support each other and be prepared to stand up for your rights. That is your part of the bargain. And when you do, we will be standing right beside you.
 

For our part, we have to stop thinking that we know what workers want and listen. Just listen.
 

You never know, an ITF Expo could be coming soon to a town near you. But don’t wait until then to tell us what you think! Get in touch with us here, post a message on Crew Talk or a comment below. We are all ears!

View video of the Seafarers Expo event on YouTube here.

If you’re a seafarer reading this then you’re probably on leave. If you’re at sea then you’re probably on a vessel with enough crew to allow you a little time off to do something other than work. Maybe you’ve been able to get ashore for a bit and are in a seafarers’ centre somewhere in the world surfing the net.
 
But on many of the vessels we visit there is very little time for anything other than work, food and sleep. And in many cases the crew are clearly not being paid for all the overtime they do and aren’t even sure how they should be paid for it.
 
Most of the backpay I have recovered for crew over the past year has been unpaid overtime on ITF covered vessels. So it seems a good idea to try to provide some clear guidance, for those who are unsure, on how much overtime should be worked and how much you should be paid for it under the terms of your contract of employment.
 
Firstly, it is vital to know what your contract of employment says. Sometimes we find that crew haven’t seen a copy of their contract. And sometimes crew are issued with contracts (by the crewing agent) that give completely different terms and conditions to those of the ITF agreement that covers the ship. So, if you haven’t already got one, you should request a copy of your contract of employment immediately. You are entitled to it. Also, you should have access to the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA). If you can’t get access to either of these documents – or if you think your contract is not in line with the ITF agreement – then contact an ITF Inspector. We can help.
 
The most common ITF agreement is the “ITF Uniform TCC Agreement”. (It’s not the only one, but more about that later). This agreement says you should be paid for at least 103 hours overtime every month at the rate set out in the agreement (for example, the rate is US$5.65 per hour for an AB; US$9.85 per hour for a 2nd Officer).
 
The normal working week is 8 hours per day Monday to Friday. Every hour worked above 8 and every hour worked on weekends is overtime and should be recorded as such (again, this is not the case in every type of ITF agreement).
 
This 103 hours overtime payment is guaranteed even if you work less than 103 hours overtime. If you work more than 103 hours overtime then you should receive the hourly overtime payment for each additional hour worked (quite often this is the overtime that we find has not been paid).
 
Obviously, therefore, it’s important to keep a record of all overtime hours worked. The agreement states that an agreed record must be kept and that each crew member should be provided with a copy of this record. If you are presented with a false overtime record then it is up to you to refuse to sign it.
 
For us, it’s pretty easy to spot a false record. A couple of years ago I inspected an ITF covered vessel where the guaranteed overtime payment was for 90 hours per month. When I looked at the overtime records on board, amazingly every person had worked exactly 90 hours overtime per month! I told the Captain this was impossible. He promised the records were accurate and that nobody ever worked more than 90 hours overtime. There was simply no need for it. And nobody ever worked less.
 
I asked for the log book and showed him that when the vessel was tying up in port one particular night, the overtime records showed that no-one had worked on deck during the mooring operation!
 
But the crew didn’t want to complain and all had signed the overtime records. So the Captain and the company were simply given a warning.
 
Six months later the vessel was back, this time under a different ITF agreement with 103 hours guaranteed overtime. Sure enough, when I checked the overtime records each crew member had worked exactly 103 hours every month. It was the same Captain. I said, “Captain, you must think we are stupid!” He admitted defeat and told me, “You must understand… I have instructions from my company that say they will not pay a penny more than the guaranteed overtime rate and so overtime above this figure is not allowed. Also, they say that since they are having to pay 103 hours overtime that everyone on board must work 103 hours overtime and not one hour less. So we have to record 103 hours every month or there will be trouble.”
 
Well, I can sympathise with the Captain and crew but the agreement is the agreement. And the company must apply the agreement correctly.
 
There are other ways for us to find the correct hours worked and we usually do. And where there is no record kept (or where it can be proved that it is false) then the agreement states that the company must pay a penalty. They must pay 160 hours overtime per month to each crew member. If they have already paid the guaranteed 103 hours then they must pay a balance of 57 hours overtime.
 
Even if you are being forced to accept a false overtime record, I would encourage you all to keep your own accurate records. This can be a big help when we Inspectors are trying to assist you.
 
Remember what I said earlier about knowing what contract you have and what agreement (if any) applies to your vessel? Well, this is important because there are many different types of ITF agreement. Some state that the guaranteed overtime payment is for 85 hours. Some state that the normal working week is 44 hours or 48 hours. Some have different pay rates so the overtime rates differ. Under the terms of many ITF agreements the Officers are paid fixed overtime rather than a minimum guaranteed amount. And so on. This is because different ITF unions in different countries will sign agreements that are considered most appropriate to the circumstances. But the same principles apply as I have outlined above.
 
If you are not sure which agreement applies to your ship or if you are worried that it is not being applied correctly, then an ITF Inspector or the ITF London HQ should be able to find out for you fairly quickly.
 
Remember, it’s your money. You should be paid for all the hours you have worked. You should always work within the hours of work/rest limits in accordance with STCW stipulations. And you should know the terms and conditions under which you are working.
 
I’m sorry if I have taken too much of your free time with this. I hope you don’t come to me with an overtime claim! Don’t work too hard or for too long. And, if you get a chance, share your experiences by responding below.

In October last year a middle-aged British couple en-route from the Seychelles to Tanzania were taken hostage when their 38ft yacht was intercepted by Somali pirates. They have been held captive ever since. The incident made news headlines around the world and for many people who have little contact with the maritime world it was the first time they were made aware of the scourge of modern piracy.

Oh, but hang on, wasn't there another one earlier in the year? That American-flagged Maersk ship, where American forces ended up shooting dead three of the pirates whilst rescuing the Captain they had taken hostage?

Friends of mine outside the maritime world were shocked that this kind of thing could happen in this day and age.

But it was nothing compared to their shock once I started to explain what the real situation is for today's seafarers, particularly those trading through the Gulf of Aden.

People are simply astounded when I tell them that in 2009 there were actually 217 ships involved in piracy incidents; that there were 47 hijackings of ships and that 867 crew members were actually taken hostage. Some people simply don't believe me. They think I must be exaggerating. But the figures are not mine. They are from data produced by the International Maritime Bureau.

I ask my friends if they can imagine what would have happened if 47 commercial aircraft had been hijacked last year? If 867 passengers, flight crew and cabin crew were taken hostage? They all agree. There would be international outrage. It would be the lead story of every major news outlet. And there would be a concerted international response to deal with the situation.

Why is it that the safety of seafarers is somehow considered to be less important? (I suppose we should be used to that. A quick Wikipedia search shows that in 2009 there were at least 37 vessels and hundreds of lives lost at sea – and this is not a complete list. Imagine the outcry if 37 commercial aircraft came down in one year.)

Anyway, the point is that the lives of thousands of seafarers are being placed in danger every time a ship owner needs to move a cargo through the vast and ever expanding piracy zone. The reason the ship owner is moving goods through these areas is because we – the world's consumers – want them.
 
Some countries are making efforts to protect ships and seafarers trading through the affected area. But others – such as the major FOC flag states making billions from the ships on their registers – are doing absolutely nothing to protect them.

Last week I inspected a well-run vessel with a relatively happy crew. They were paid regularly in accordance with the ship's ITF agreement and their families received their allotments on time. Provisions were plentiful and of good quality and the accommodation areas were clean and tidy. The ship seemed to be well maintained. But there was something in the eyes of some of the crew that told me all was not right. I wondered if overtime was being paid but when I checked it clearly was. When I got talking to a few of the crew in the mess room I asked them what was on their mind. Was there something wrong I should know about? "No", they said. "It is nothing to do with how we are treated. It is our next port. We have to go through the pirates to get there and we are very scared."
 
Who can blame them? In February this year 17 Filipino seamen were part of a crew released after being held captive by Somali pirates for 10 months. The rest of the crew were made up of six Indonesians, five Chinese and two Taiwanese. A Chinese sailor and two Indonesians had reportedly died in captivity. What could possibly make this story any worse?

I'll tell you. The Chairman of the Manila Economic and Cultural Office had to call on the Department of Labour and Employment to ensure that the Filipino seamen receive their back wages for the period of their captivity.
 
In other words, their wages had been stopped once the pirates had captured them and their families had suffered not only the mental torture of not knowing if they would ever see their loved ones again but the cruelty of having their income stopped at a stroke, thereby seriously jeopardising their ability to survive financially. Not all employers act so callously but we have to make sure that none do.

And the international community has to do more to ensure that everything possible is being done to minimise the risk in the first place.

This week the ITF and a group of industry partners are launching a campaign to persuade all governments to commit the resources necessary to end the increasing problem of Somalia-based piracy. The growing number of incidents clearly demonstrates that the measures in place at present are wholly inadequate.

Much more commitment needs to be given to tackling the problems of Somalia and its people. Piracy has become a livelihood for a small number of Somalis. There is no easy solution to this. It will take a global effort and a careful approach to bring Somalia back from the wreckage. But unless the international community addresses the causes, piracy will persist and seafarers will continue to face the threat of attack.

If the world wants to continue to trade, and survive, then it should make it a priority to protect those of you whose job it is to transport the goods from A to B. In this, the Year of the Seafarer, it is the very least it can do.

We hope to deliver half a million signatures by World Maritime Day, 23 September 2010, to make it clear to governments that they should close the circle on protection of ships. And those states now ducking their responsibilities need to stand up and follow the example of those actively involved in combating the threat.

The petition will call on nations to:

• Dedicate significant resources and work to find real solutions to the growing piracy problem.
• Take immediate steps to secure the release and safe return of kidnapped seafarers to their families
• Work within the international community to secure a stable and peaceful future for Somalia and its people

We all have a responsibility to sign the petition and to convince as many people as possible to add their signatures too. An electronic web-based petition has been set up and can be accessed by clicking here. So, do your bit – visit www.endpiracypetition.org, sign the petition, get your family and friends to sign it and spread the word.

Register on the Crew Talk forum and you could win a laptop computer or one of five second prizes of a solar powered charger.

To enter the competition, just:

1. Register on the ‘Crew Talk’ forum
2. Join a discussion and post a comment
   

Prizes:
One Dell Laptop worth up to £500 – the winner of this prize will be the best post on the forum by a registered user between 01 May 2010 and 31 May 2010. The ITF will inform the winner of the prize on 02 June 2010.

Five runner up prizes of a FreeLoader Pro solar powered charger (for mobile phones, MP3s etc) worth up £70 – the winners will be picked at random from all entrants made from 01 May 2010 to 31 May 2010.

You accept these terms and conditions when you enter the competition, together with any specific terms for such competition which may be mentioned in any messages or on this website. If you do not agree with any of these terms and conditions then you should not enter the competition.

I am hoping my title here is self-explanatory – regular readers may remember an earlier blog entry on the same subject – so I will come straight to the point on this.

Nowadays, and especially with the aftershocks of the credit crunch still being felt, seafarers are increasingly being asked to lash or unlash cargo. And employers are becoming more and more inventive in avoiding potential “interference” from dockers' unions in those ports where there is an active union.

Seafarers are often requested to unlash prior to arrival, or to lash cargo after leaving berth, when the ship is at sea. And sometimes these forms of cargo handling are even done inside the port, while the vessel is still berthed or while the vessel is shifting, with cargo ramps or holds closed for unwanted visitors. Reports from dockers and seafarers to the ITF Inspectorate confirm the above.

When cargo handling by seafarers is ascertained, the master of the vessel will receive a warning from the ITF Inspectorate and/or the local ITF-affiliated dockers’ union. In some ports the vessel may even be subject to actions from ITF-affiliated dockers’ unions who want to protect the jobs of their members.

Afterwards begins a kind of “shift-the-blame” game. The captain is normally the person that decides if the crew will handle the cargo. But he, in turn, receives orders from the owners, operators, customers, charterers and agents; or perhaps the crew handled the cargo without asking the captain. Owners are pointing fingers at charterers. The credit crunch and poor economy is often used as an excuse. Charterers point fingers at agents. And so it goes on. Everybody is blaming somebody else.

But that does not change the fact that if the vessel is covered with an ITF-approved collective bargaining agreement (CBA), or in some cases with a national CBA, there is a breach of agreement. Under the terms of this agreement a ship’s crew must not undertake “cargo handling and other work traditionally or historically done by dock workers without the prior agreement of the ITF dockers’ union concerned”. This includes lashing and unlashing, loading and unloading.

The same goes for almost all national flagged vessels – a dockers’ clause similar to the one in the ITF CBAs prevents crew from handling cargo.

And to complete it, some countries have a law for cargo handling and others countries may have ratified ILO 137, the Dockwork Convention. So if the seafarers are handling cargo, it means even more breaches have taken place.

Whatever the excuses and reasons used to justify cargo handling by seafarers, what’s in it for the seafarers?

Not a lot. For this job, seafarers are paid peanuts – if they get any extra pay at all. Every time they do it they jeopardise their health and risk their life for the benefit and profit of the ones above them. Not to mention the stress and fatigue this extra non-seafaring work brings them. At the same time, dockers are losing work.

Both seafarers and dockers are losing out. The only winners are the bosses, the employers, the shipping companies and the port operators who will do what they can to squeeze another dollar of profit at the expense of the workers.

Crew cargo handling is an area in which the maritime industry and its shareholders have already been busy for many years, trying to find ways to boost their profits and to breach one of the strongest bonds of solidarity that exists among the working class.

In Europe, for the last few years, dockers have been winning the fight for their jobs against two European directives also known as Port Package I & II. But now it seems the game has been brought to the waterfront. It begs the question: Is the industry trying to pit these two natural allies against each other?

A lot of seafarers are working under the terms and conditions and the protection of an ITF CBA. In some cases the CBA came into place with the support of dockers.

The dockers have supported you, now it is time for you to support them!
 
As an ITF Inspector I ask you to please ensure that you do not undertake any cargo handling or related work that should be done by dockers. If you have any experience or knowledge of this practice, please advise us or notify your union. Alternatively you could also inform the dockers working on board your vessel. They will do the rest.

Dockers and seafarers, together we are strong!

Help us to help you! Respect the dockers' clause!
 
Thank you for your understanding. If you have any comments, please react below.

For now, safe sailing!

Recent experience leads me to believe that seafarers need to be warned about the risks they face on sailing into a country when they have in their possession material that is considered to be culturally and legally unacceptable in that country.

Over the past couple of years I have come across several cases where crew have been arrested, imprisoned and deported for having indecent or obscene material. Sometimes this is quite right, for example when a seafarer is clearly found with images of child pornography. But sometimes it is not so clear-cut.

Let me give some examples. On one ship that arrived in my port, the authorities found a quantity of cigarettes along with some magazines and DVDs containing child pornography in an overhead air duct. They identified the engineer responsible for maintaining the air duct and arrested him. Initially he admitted the cigarettes were his but protested his innocence regarding the other material. He subsequently changed his plea to guilty and was jailed for six months and then deported. 

Another crew member was arrested because they found images of child pornography on the hard drive of his laptop computer. He said that he recently bought the laptop in a market in another port and he did not know the images were there. He was held in prison for several months awaiting trial. Eventually – according to his lawyer – he changed his plea to guilty in order to receive a lighter sentence and get home quicker.

On another ship, four crew members were arrested. Illegal images were found on laptops, DVDs and even mobile phones. The Captain was furious that one of them had been set up. He explained that a Customs Officer had started a conversation with the crew member about the sport of cock-fighting and had given the impression that he, too, was a fan. He had asked the seafarer if he had any DVDs of the sport he could have. The crew member had given him one and was promptly arrested. The Captain couldn’t understand how this guy could be arrested for this when the sport was popular and acceptable in his own home country. How could he be expected to be aware that this sport was unlawful in my country?

I think this is a valid point. The authorities should give ships agents a list of unacceptable/unlawful things, to be passed to the vessel prior to its arrival, so that everyone is aware of the rules in any particular country. That way, no-one should be arrested due to their ignorance. If a crew knows beforehand exactly what is prohibited then there can be no excuses if someone is caught with something they shouldn’t have.

And every seafarer should know what is on their personal laptop computer. In the most recent case I dealt with, a crew member was arrested because of unacceptable images found on his laptop and on a memory stick that was still attached to his laptop. He maintained that crew members would “borrow” laptops from each other to send emails home etc., and someone else must have downloaded the images to his laptop. Why, he argued, would he leave a memory stick in his computer during a customs search if he was aware that there were such images saved on it? The court took a different view and jailed him for six months for “importing with the intention to distribute” obscene material.

His situation brought further consequences for his family. They had not known for three weeks what had happened to him. They thought he must have fallen overboard or died because all communication just stopped. In fact the crewing agent and ship owner had gone broke, so nobody had thought to tell the family he had been arrested. Eventually he had made contact from prison. What is more, although documents showed that everyone had been paid to the end of the month before the company’s collapse, the crewing agency had not transferred his wages to his family because he had been arrested. In effect they had stolen his wages. But we could do nothing about this because they had since gone bust. Also, between the customs authorities, the prison and his embassy his belongings had been lost, including his passport, seaman’s book, driving licence and national ID card. Because his family did not have any of these, it was impossible for them to claim any benefits because they couldn’t prove who he was, who he had worked for and so on.

All because, he claims, he let his shipmates use his laptop.

The point is, try to be aware of the laws and customs of the countries you are sailing to. 

The authorities in my country do a good job trying to protect the rest of us from the unpleasant things we don’t want coming into our country. We have asked them to do this job for us and we support them. It is the same for other countries. 

I don’t want this disgusting material coming here. But neither do I want any innocent crew member to find themselves in situations like these because they haven’t been careful. If you are aware of the rules you can act accordingly. If you are still caught with unacceptable material there is really no excuse.

As you know, this part of the website offers seafarers up-to-date information on real issues and covers our experiences as ITF Inspectors working on your behalf.

So, here is something that crossed my desk a couple of weeks ago.

How many of you have heard about seafarer recruitment scams using internet websites? Usually, these target seafarers from developing countries or prospective seafarers who are often quite desperate and have little knowledge about how a person really secures maritime employment.

The website usually appears to be legitimate – it might have a postal address in the United Kingdom, Canada or another western country. And these sites often require the employment-seeker to send some money for entry into the database. This may be disguised as an ‘agency’ or ‘registration’ fee or, increasingly, as payment for a medical examination, visa, or passport processing. It may be made to look like something you have to pay to a government department, clinic or bank. Or you may be asked for money to cover airfares to join a ship and then promised you’ll get the money back when you arrive.
 
You won’t.

These are the details of the latest scam, as described by a seafarer who sent me a full report on how he was cheated. They are his words, although I have deleted any identifying names.

"After applying to the manning agency website advertisement, I was given a short phone call interview by a Captain from a well-known cruise line. Someone from the agency notified me the next day saying that the company had hired me. She then emailed me my employment contract and information.”
 
“The contract was for five months on board one of this company’s cruise ships as a Junior Officer. The pay rate was to be 3,100 Euro a month, with a bonus of 1,300 Euro when the contract was finished.
 
“She informed me that the company wanted me, as well as all others hired, to take anti-terrorism, drug, alcohol management and crowd control courses. The courses were to be taken in Naples, Italy, and paid for by us; our fees would be paid back to us after spending 21 days onboard the vessel, as would the cost for our flights. The agency then organised flights for all of us, although we paid for them. We were emailed contracts to sign and sent them back to the agency, which then forwarded them to the cruise line.
 
“Our hotels were paid for in Naples, and when we arrived we learned that the courses would be taught in the conference room of the hotel. When we met with the man from the cruise line, he informed us that the ship had broken down, and all passengers disembarked, but that we had been assigned to a different vessel.
 
“The other vessel was said to be departing from St. Tropez, France, two days later, and there were not enough flight seats available for all 15 of us. The man known as ‘Rudy’ gave us our train tickets for France and two contact numbers for our arrival. He informed us that our courses would now take place onboard the ship but that these still had to be paid for in Italy.
 
“We had to sign new contracts as the vessel had changed, fill in our banking information, and pay ‘Rudy’ for our courses (670 Euro for Jr. Officer, 780 Euro for hotel staff who required STCW 95 basic safety). We were given visas for France as well as vessel orientation booklets. Twenty-four hours later we arrived in St. Raphael, France, to find no cruise line employee waiting for us, and the contact numbers we had been given went straight to fax machines.
 
“We went to the local police department and found out that the ship we were to join would not be sailing to France. Right away we contacted the manning agency, which had no idea that this was a scam. They helped us contact the embassy but other than that left us on our own to find accommodation and flights home. They have informed us we will not be reimbursed for any flights, meals, or accommodation.

“From what I have learned now, the cruise line had nothing to do with any of this – it was entirely created by Italian organised crime. All of our contracts seem very legit, and I can forward them to you if necessary. I hope that this gives you a better idea of the situation, if you require more information you can contact me.”

I don't know what the ITF could do for these young people, all of whom lost thousands of Euros. This scam was extremely sophisticated. It is the first time we have heard of people actually flying to join ships on the other side of the world. The money lost was not just the ‘course’ fees – these went into the pockets of the fraudsters – but also all of the travel costs these people paid for upfront.

I forwarded this information to my national maritime regulatory authority. They have made some inquiries about the agency but nothing has come of it. It would seem that the agency was also caught up in this ploy to steal from young job-seekers. At this time there is no international mechanism to deal with this matter. The criminals sent the crew from Italy to France after they had taken their money. The French police were not interested; the Italian police only had a foreign citizen on a telephone with nothing concrete to investigate.

We have previously widely publicised recruitment scams – in fact, we have even taken action with foreign authorities and pressed them to shut some of these rackets down – so please spread the word and pass these stories around.

Thankfully, the ITF and the International Shipping Federation have worked long and hard at the International Labour Organization on the new Maritime Labour Convention. Those folks had the foresight to recognise the complexities of recruitment scams. The Maritime Labour Convention will come into force very soon. And on this subject the convention states in clause 1.4 c (vi): “…establish a system of protection, by way of insurance or an equivalent appropriate measure to compensate seafarers for monetary loss that they may incur as a result of the failure of a recruitment service or the relevant shipowner under the seafarers' employment agreement to meet its obligations to them.”

So, there you have it. In future more seafarers and would-be seafarers will have some protection from the kind of complicated fraud described in this post.

The ITF takes these issues very seriously. Unfortunately, we are not always able to provide direct assistance in cases of criminal fraud. This isn't an employment matter. It’s a regulatory and public awareness matter. We are doing what we can with the marine authorities – we put seafarers in touch with the correct authorities and we work hard within our own national maritime administrations to put into effect the ILO language I have quoted above.

The rest is up to you. You know the world of shipping is fraught with deception and peril. Be careful. Share your stories and experiences with your fellow workers and with us. Together we look after each other.

For now safe sailing.

The other day I came across a really interesting story – one that touches on so many of the issues we ashore often preach about. You know what I mean: whether it’s the ITF, IMO or a shipowners' association, concerns are constantly being voiced about the shortage of skilled crew, the marine environment and the thorny issue of criminalisation of seafarers.

In fact, the IMO has decided that 2010 will be the International Year of the Seafarer.

Can anybody see where this is heading? Yes, I have another complaint to make about those who govern and operate the shipping industry. So, here goes...

Recently I was out checking conditions aboard the ships in my port. On the last ship of the day, I was greeted by a young master. I joked, "who promoted you to Captain?". He smiled and when I asked his age he said he was 37 years old. It was his second command. He had received good training and served with a couple of fine mentors who had helped accelerate his career path.

But sadly, he also said that he planned to retire at 40. I scratched my head and asked why he would cut off his career at such a young age. He cited several reasons.

1) Worsening sea conditions and intense pressure.

2) Salaries that do not make it worth spending so much time away from home. (In his case 9-10 month contracts are normal.)

3) A young family that wants him home, and isolation and lack of communication with them.

4) Lack of support from maritime authorities and the industry in general.

He related a few stories, but none were more harrowing than what had just occurred while he was in transit to my port. Here's what happened…

While inbound, the bulker was ordered to wait at anchor for a berth. She was assigned an anchorage in a remote location. When the crew let go the anchor in 30 metres of water, the pilot remarked that they should be alert for the rest of the night. Ballast had been pumped, in line with the charters’ requirements for the "Notice of Readiness" to load. Gale force winds were forecast and the approach to the anchorage was exposed. As the night wore on, the wind speed increased and they started to drag anchor very fast. Crew were quickly ordered to their positions and engines were readied.

The Captain advised the port of the situation and said he was trying to avoid colliding with one of the nearby islands, now less than less than three cables off. They dropped more chain, and a second anchor but the vessel continued to drag. At some point the stern caught the back-eddy of the tide, due to the narrow mouth of the channel. At this point the captain requested the assistance of tugboats but, unfortunately, help was about two hours away. A tug was dispatched but they were on their own; the sea was now running at about four to five metres.

The ship was in a perilous position and the Captain radioed a request to heave anchor and steam out of trouble. After being told to "stand-by for one minute", the response came that the ship would be contravening regulations if it heaved anchor without a pilot onboard – but that if the Captain wished to do so for the safety of the vessel it was his choice.

They began to heave anchors, drifting sideways towards the narrow channel and abeam to the wind due to the tidal current. The Chief Officer and crew up on the forecastle – hanging on in the wind – and the Captain on the bridge relaying messages back and forth.

Still the ship continued to head towards a small island – in danger of wrapping around it like a car hitting a lamppost. They tried to control the drag but, due to the conditions, things remained difficult. They were unable to raise the anchor. The Captain ordered full astern and the ship finally avoided collision by a whisker – the bow missing the island by metres. It was such a close call, none of the crew I talked to thought they were going to make it.

The anchor came free as they were dragging towards deeper water. Then it was up to the Captain and his officers to turn the vessel back into the wind and manoeuvre it between the islands into more open water. Eventually, they managed to get the bow around and into the wind. The tug finally arrived and stood by for about two hours while they waited for a pilot.

It was truly remarkable that the Captain and crew were able to save the ship that night. Honestly, looking at the chart and the conditions they faced, it's a miracle the vessel didn't hit that small island.

The local coastal area features well-appointed homes, parks and thriving marine wildlife – this really could have been an environmental disaster. But what really makes me mad is that when I did a bit of research, I found that the same thing happened to another ship in the same anchorage only two months before. Luckily in that case the vessel settled softy on a reef and on a rising tide.

So, the question is: at a time when there is such a shortage of skilled young seafarers, why do we let them down so badly by ignoring such incidents? Why do we anchor a vessel in an exposed anchorage away from any assistance in deteriorating weather conditions? Why do the charters place the vessel at risk so that it can be ready to load? Why don't the owners support the crew instead of signing a charter party agreement that can place the vessel and her crew in danger for economic reasons?

Are we learning nothing about cases such as the Hebei Spirit in Korea, the Full City in Norway, the Prestige off the coast of Spain? In every one of these incidents the vessel was left or placed in a situation beyond the control of the Master and crew. The Full City case, in particular, is quite similar to the one described above: anchored in an unsafe location – storm brewing – the ship dragged anchor until it ran aground.

Every time one of these cases crops up I hear platitudes from the industry about the crew and their efforts. Hell, we even dedicate a whole year to them. But when it comes down to it, apart from having a ceremony, how far is the industry really prepared to go to support these men and women they supposedly honour?

Why do we allow them to be put in situations like this? I suspect it all comes down to money and shoreside "risk management". Shipowners, charterers and customers are looking to cut costs and cut corners wherever they can. Maritime authorities are always under stiff pressure from the industry to make requirements less stringent.

We let this ship and her crew down! Then we did nothing to help them! They saved the ship all by themselves and averted another massive clean-up operation; they avoided another black eye for an industry that constantly complains how it is so hard done by. If they hadn't saved the ship, the Captain and officers would probably have been arrested, and armchair mariners the world over would have been passing judgment on what the crew should or should not have done.

It's time for the industry to step up and be counted; to put its money where its mouth is and make this career a more rewarding choice for young seafarers, make it safer for them. It's up to governments, owners and labour to do this. If we don't all pull together, we will get what we deserve. I can tell you that this Captain was truly grateful that I came on board, listened to his story, wrote a letter to my authorities and wrote to the company to commend the valiant efforts of this crew. Nobody else seemed to care.

An old ITF inspector friend of mine likes to say, "What you brew today, you drink tomorrow". Damn right.

So, well done, Captain, I hope you do stay in a shipboard career – this industry can't afford to lose workers like you and your crew.

For now, safe sailing all.

Happy New Year to you all – may it be a safe one.

It still amazes me that many of the seafarers I try and help don’t have anything in writing that could be used as evidence to support their case.

Often there has been an ongoing disagreement between a crew member and a captain, or ship manager, or crew manager, and you find that most of the discussions have been verbal, which makes it impossible to show who said or promised what to whom, and when.

Here is a good example: an Eastern European officer called me from the mid-Atlantic. He explained that when he was offered his current position, he had told the company that he didn’t have a visa for the United States. This was because on a previous visit to the US, his visa had expired during his stay and he had been deported. The company, however, said this would not be a problem since the vessel would not be sailing to the US.

During his contract, the ship received instructions to pick up a cargo destined for the East Coast of the USA. Again the guy told the captain he didn’t have a US visa, who in turn informed the company. The captain was told by an agent that the guy could be repatriated from the loading port, but despite every effort this could not be arranged. So the ship eventually sailed to the US with him still on board and still visa-less.

On arrival, the US Coast Guard requested security to guard the visa-less crew member. The same thing happened at the next port.

The next month the crew member heard from his family that his allotment of wages hadn’t arrived. When he questioned the company he was told to check with his bank. Later, they told him his salary would be paid with the following month’s wages.

This went on for two and a half months before the crewing agent finally told him the company was withholding his money to pay the security bill in the US, totalling over $12,000.

By this stage, his contract had expired, but the company still refused to repatriate him. They said they would transfer him to a different ship until the “debt” had been paid off.

When I heard this story I asked the officer to send me any documents that proved that he had informed the company about his visa situation. He had nothing. Most of the communication had been verbal. The master apparently had communications about the requests to the company and the agent about repatriation, but he refused to provide any of these, arguing that he was acting under instruction from the company.

I told him he must try to get something in writing that supported his claims, otherwise the company could argue he never told them about his visa situation and that he had put them in the position of having to pay for the security guards.

A day later I called him again and he reported that the company had said they would pay his salary and repatriate him from the next port.

When I asked if he had this promise in writing, he said no! Once again he was relying on them keeping to their word.

Let’s see if the company will keep their promise. If they don’t, how do we prove that he notified them that he had no US visa?

For an inspector trying to assist you, having something in writing that supports your claim can really help us to get a case resolved. At the end of the day, it will be helpful to you.

With that in mind, here are my top tips for keeping a record:

• Make sure communication with the vessel operator, manager, owner, crewing agent, etc., is in writing, especially if it’s about an important issue.
• Even if written communication is only one-way (from you to them) it will demonstrate that you made every effort to communicate with them.
• Keep a copy of anything you send or receive.
• If they respond verbally (by telephone for instance), write to them again and ask them to kindly put their response in writing. Keep a copy.
• If you don’t have access to email or fax, and communication is via the captain, ask him for copies of any relevant correspondence in or out.
• If this is refused, put your request in writing, keep a copy and ask the master to sign and date it, confirming receipt of your request. If he doesn’t want to do this, try to get a fellow crew member to sign as a witness to the date that you made the written request.