Maritime News
The "shame" of Black Sea shipping
29 June 2012
The ITF has slammed the shocking conditions of shipping in the Black Sea in a new report, Black Sea of Shame, published with trade unions from Bulgaria, Georgia, Russia, Romania, Turkey and Ukraine.The report, launched on 25 June, the Day of the Seafarer, alleges that ancient shipping, rock-bottom and unpaid wages, assaults, sinkings and corruption are widespread on ships working in the Black Sea.
ITF maritime coordinator Steve Cotton commented: “This is a true catalogue of shame. Our inspectors and our member unions are dealing with the human costs of unsafe and ageing shipping, and managements who consider crews a dispensable luxury, to be paid at whim and undeserving of basic protections, including insurance against death and injury.”
He added that the report was the start of a campaign to reform “these awful conditions", and that the forthcoming Maritime Labour Convention – laying down international standards for seafarers – would provide a model framework to which the governments concerned should all aspire.
The report says that the majority of the 2,400 vessels active in the Black Sea are over 20 years old – with 800 over 30 years old – and that this is reflected in serious accidents and repeated abuse of seafarers, who often also suffer delayed or non-payment of wages.
It concludes that the industry is substandard, with working conditions that affect the physical and mental well-being of seafarers, and that the situation in the "Black Sea of Shame" can no longer be tolerated.
Black Sea of Shame - www.itfglobal.org/infocentre/pubs.cfm/detail/34854
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