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Crews take action to get their pay

5 June 2009

There are increasing reports of crews going unpaid as their owners fall victim to the worldwide slump in trade and shipping. But union action can help seafarers to claim their wages due and get them back to their home country if they are stranded overseas.

Intervention by the ITF helped crew members of a ship docked in Bilbao, Spain to retrieve unpaid wages. With the help of ITF inspector Mohamed Arrachedi, the Latvian owners of the Malta-flagged Uniwind paid wages due to crew members – mainly Russian and Ukrainian – since March and April. But the seafarers were still due outstanding overtime and other payments, and the 16 crew declared themselves on strike on 29 May, the day the vessel was due to sail. As the ship's capacity was only 12 crew, the ITF contacted the port state control to cancel its clearance to sail.

Following this move, the owners appointed a maritime lawyer to deal with the issue, and ITF successfully negotiated a handover of the additional pay due, and tickets home for six of the crew. Mohamed Arrachedi reports that the company has also agreed to sign a new ITF agreement in Latvia.

There has also been a successful conclusion for the Russian crew of the OMG Kolpino, stranded without pay in Avonmouth, England.

Following intervention by the ITF, the crew have now been paid and flew home on 4 June.

In Denmark, 10 crew members – mainly Lithuanian – of two coastal vessels have gone on strike in the ports of Aabenraa and Vejle and have refused to discharge their cargoes, in action to retrieve three months' wages due. The seafarers are from the Swedish-owned, Panama-flagged Baltic Wind and Baltic Breeze 1 and are owed about US$106,000 in outstanding wages.

A Danish representative of the ITF has visited the seafarers to help resolve the situation, and said that they also had no more than five days' food left on board.

Meanwhile, the Russian seafarers' union RPSM is calling for the arrest of six ships in the Russian far eastern port of Nakhodka as part of action to claim US$700,000 owed to about 100 Russian seafarers, who have not been paid for three months. Five of these ships are owned by the Cypriot company Eltriko Holding and are Marshall Islands-flagged, and the sixth is owned by the Japanese company Marina Trading and is Cambodia-flagged.

PROBLEMS WITH PAY?
Are you having problems with getting your pay in full? If you are, this could be a sign that your company is in economic trouble. You should contact your union or the ITF directly as soon as possible to protect your wages and employment.

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