health and safety

Fishers on a 50-year-old trawler should not be made to go back to sea, even to sail to a repair yard, the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) is demanding of a vessel which has been so poorly maintained it has become death trap. 

The fishing vessel Santa Isabel (IMO 7224540), flying under the Belize flag, has been detained by maritime authorities in the port of Vigo in northern Spain since 10 May 2023, after the ITF drew attention to its appalling state, as well as the intolerable conditions for crew observed by the ITF inspector. 

Unions remember workers lost to negligent employers and safety standards

Today, the 28th of April, marks International Workers’ Memorial Day, when trade unions around the world remember and mourn the loss of the colleagues, friends and family who never came home from work.

“Crew are often hundreds of miles from shore when illness, accident or injury takes place onboard – leaving them without internet and dangerously far from the nearest hospital,” said International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) General Secretary Stephen Cotton as he welcomed a new medical guide for ships from shipowners’ association ICS.

Seafarers stranded aboard a livestock carrier vessel abandoned off the Australian coast have finally been repaid their missing wages and repatriated home with the assistance of the International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF).

Two years on from the sinking of the Ingenika and tragic loss of two of the mariners onboard, cost pressures are still putting tug crews’ lives in danger, the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) has warned – will we never learn?<