What is your experience of crew manning agents and their recruitment practices?

tricked for 3 times, lost almost USD2500

That's terrible SemperFi! Was it through a manning agent? The same one each time? Any words of advice / caution for fellow seafarers?
If you are able to email ITF some details (in confidence) it might help prevent seafarers getting stung by the same crooks in future.

desperately looking for a job but can't trust crewing agents, .. i have been a victim twice and that hurts my pocket enough for a seafarer that is not working at the moment, .. sometimes i feel that this profession just sucks.
the ships in my country do not employ our own seafarers, .. they use foreign ones but we have qualified seafarers who have no job, lots of them. i don't know if i should be ashamed of being a seafarer especially when i cannot put food on my family's table.

Edited: 08/28/2008 at 08:42 AM by bolababu

I can really sympathise with your situation bolababu. All too often seafarers get stung by dodgy manning agents, and to be bitten twice in this way must be awful.
Sadly, these agents prey on seafarers who are desperate to find work. Some seafarers aren't aware of the risk they take in paying for a job. Others are well aware of the risk, but choose to take a chance anyway, they are so determined to find paid work.
Out of interest, which country are you in? And are you a union member? It might be possible, through your union, to find out which manning agents are ligitimate, and find work that way.
Maybe other people looking at this site will have some advice.
In any case, you should be proud to be a seafarer. It is a difficult and dangerous job. Without seafarers, most of the goods we take for granted would not reach us.

absolutely.seafarers are a group of chosen people.not all could endure the long stay at sea doing the same job @ the same place & seeing the same people everyday.not all could  bear the work and not all could resist boredom and keep their sanity...you must be proud to be part of this chosen people..

Nemo, I am impressed by the kind of reply you gave to this question of how to get a job at sea and definitely require your help and advice on this.As a Kenyan who got the call to be a seafarer at 49 years, I decided to go for STCW 95 courses in neighbouring Tanzania inorder to shift my career in teaching in 2007.

On successful completion, I was issued with a Kenyan discharge book which however shows I have no previous sea-experience. Despite undertaking a short trip to Zanzibar on board a dhow inorder to develop the love for the sea, I have unsuccessfully tried to get a job either as an AB or OS. Now at 50 years, I am getting desperate whether I will ever go the sea since my discharge book seems to have become a drive of the nail into my coffin. Unfortunately, there are no seafarers unions in Kenya one can turn to; only recruiting agents who give jobs to those they know. How does one get a seafarers job when he has had no past experience? Come to my help,Nemo!

 

I am Polish bosun. My company repeat my empoloyment many years now. But i am getting older now and these days there are many more cheaper crews if shipowner want to pay less. I am worrying each time that they will not bring me back for another contract. Even though i have good record with the company lot of experience and good qalification.

Not so good, of course ladies on board are still rarity! ZFor us is difficult to find job, also as a cadet.

Good day sailors!

I am have last previous contract via sailors marine publicity

But ,I have to admin that what pay behing contract to express regret.

Pay to crewing

Best regards

I got my last job through my manning agent who I have been with for a while, in the past few years I never had to wait but this last time I had to wait for 4 months apparently the owners of the vessel had chaged the crew to Chinese crew , but now I am happy to have a new contract, but I worry next time !!

I agree with inday, it is difficult to get a job, I am cook and not so many companies that employ women. I like my job at sea.

We have ILO conventions to prevent this from happening! Like C9 that says;

"The business of finding employment for seamen shall not be carried on by any person, company, or other agency, as a commercial enterprise for pecuniary gain; nor shall any fees be charged directly or indirectly by any person, company or other agency, for finding employment for seamen on any ship".

Infortunately not all countries have ratified this convention. Maybe we will see some change with the new MLC! 

Yes, Mama, there will be change with the MLC, since more responsibility will fall on the flag state! If the flag state has ratified the MLC they have to make sure that even if shipowners, flying their flag, employ seafarers from contries where the MLC does not apply, they still have to ensure that recruitment conforms with the code! That must be good, right?

 

I wonder if seafarers are the only occupational group that have to pay to get a job? Does anybody know?

Nope Gilbert. I dont think so. From where I came from, any job as long as it is to be in a foreign land, the manning agency/placement agency would ask the applicant for a certain amount of money. And from what I have heard they are usually huge amount, that sometimes these poor applicants would have to sell off, lease properties, borrow from loan sharks, or pay thru salary deductions for so many months.  And why does this have to be this way?There are many factors why a person needs to pay just to land a job. Among these: the country and nationality of the applicant, the position applied, and the market( the law of supply and demand), and the knowledge/level of education (experience, or the university's, firm, company they are from).Most 3rd world countries(poor countries) are most notorious. Why? mainly because of the politics, and the corruption in most of the sectors , be it public, or private. I am a Filipino, and it was said( though, I have not come acrossed with any studies) that 30% of the world's seafarers are Filipinos.Many seafarers, would apply to certain positions, and if that seafarer doesnt have any "connection" whatsoever, or that he did'nt graduate from the most prestigious maritime university in our country, the chances of him landing a job is very slim to none at all.This goes true for those non Deck and engine seafarers, the hotel personnels. Some employees of the manning agency sees this as an opportunity to earn some more from their usual wage( which I may say, may be the minimum actual wage). This is most tempting. Sometimes, this practice of corruption even comes from the higher up within the the company.This is most unfortunate, of course. One would say, it's how it is, and they cannot do anything about it. But of course,we can, it's not just easy.

I am not a victim of this"paying to get a job thing."Lucky me. Maybe, because during that time, they desperate need a doctor.I worked as a ship doctor from 2006 to 2009, until I filed a resignation, for which my superiors refused, and instead advised that I go on indefinite leave of absence.

Edited: 04/28/2010 at 12:24 AM by lovemd

You and I are among the "lucky" ones then, since we haven't paid to get a job..yet! Let's put our trust in the MLC and hope we never have to...

Yep, let's put our trust to MLC. People from any nation, culture desires a job to GET PAID, not to pay to get a job(even if "they" say its the trend or peraps the easiest way).

And yes,lucky us, hence, it should  not stop us from getting involved for the commom goodness of majority, because the world is not only about us.

I think I am lucky to have a good manning agent with good principal. My uncle who is a Captain helped me with the manning agent. But my neighbor is not so lucky. Last year his ship was abandoned in Vietnam and with ITF help, he was repatriated and paid. This year, on another contract, his ship was abandoned in Gibraltar. He was repatriated to Philippines last month and not yet paid in full. His manning agent was the same in both contracts. I don't know why he went back to the same manning agent after that experience in Vietnam. Maybe because of difficulty in finding a job?