09.08.2018

SUR raised the most pressing issues at the meeting with the Minister of Transport

In Moscow, Transport Minister Yevgeny Dietrich held a traditional meeting with leaders of all-Russian trade unions representing the interests of sea and river transport workers. This year the meeting participants, among which were the Chairman of the Seafarers' Union of  Russia Yury Sukhorukov and the Chairman of the Dockers'  Union of Russia  Vasily Kozarenko, raised the most acute issues facing the industry: return of Russian ships under  the national flag, construction of new training vessels where  cadets could do a seagoing training, execution and issue of port entry passes. 

Previously, SUR submitted its proposals on representation and protection of social and labor rights and interests of seamen to the administrative department of the Ministry of Transport of the Russian Federation. The Union touched upon the problem of unrestricted access to sea port territories for SUR representatives. Despite the Federal Law "On trade unions, their rights and guarantees of activities", as well as international maritime standards, they still face difficulties in obtaining the passes.

For example, the Inspectors of SUR Northern Territorial  Organization can not visit ships at port of Arkhangelsk because of the obstacles put by a private security company, furthermore, in Nakhodka it is necessary to draw up 20 similar documents to get into cargo terminals located  the same territory.

Equally important was the issue of maritime education: one of the most pressing challenges is the lack of job places  on board ships for cadets to do a seagoing  training. The reasons are both a small number of training ships and inconsistency of training programs with the needs of shipowners, which are  ready to take cadets  for practice. This creates situation when  graduates are forced to serve again as cadets to meet the specified sea-time requirements necessary to gain a Certificate of Competence.

– Yes, our seafarers – the officers  – are still in demand and have a good reputation. But as for the yesterday's graduates,  their level of competence  leaves much to be desired. They do not have enough practice, they do not have enough experience of communication in an isolation on board of ships, – says Yuri Sukhorukov. – As for the training ships, we really do not have enough such vessels. We spoke about this problem at different levels,  we developed  training ships' designs and even negotiate them, but  the matter did not get any farther, everything quietly died. But  it is impossible to train a qualified specialist without practice. Perhaps, the government program aimed at providing all cadets with the necessary time of seagoing training  would help to improve the situation. And of course, in this context the accomplishment of task set by the Maritime Doctrine of the Russian Federation for the period until 2030, namely, providing the state support for the construction,  maintenance and operation of training ships, is of great importance.  The  Central Maritime Research and Design Institute has already developed a next-generation training ship design (project 991C) with carrying  capacity up to 162 people , where cadets could reinforce their academic knowledge with practical skills, which improves the quality of training. Now we need just one thing – to find financing to implement the project.

The agenda of the meeting with the minister included the discussion of the Amendment Act on the Merchant Shipping Code, which expanded the definition of "cabotage", as well as a list of activities for which vessels under the Russian flag have a preference.

 So, the document secures the exclusive right for ships under the Russian  flag to be engaged in sea transportation of oil and natural gas extracted in the territory of Russia and loaded on ships in the Northern Sea Route water areas. The creation of legislative preferences for the Russian-flagged ships is an important step in protecting national interests.

However, there is another issue related to this topic, which SUR repeatedly raised at meetings in the ministries. It is an issue of protecting the national maritime labor market, because even on ships under the Russian flag the shipowner can practically uncontrollably employ foreign crews. Many times the Union  appealed to the Ministry of Transport with  request to keep the licensing procedure for the employment of foreign seafarers. The relevant legislative mechanism  is established by the Law on the Legal Status of Foreign Citizens in the Russian Federation and has been in force since 2002. However, it's requirements are not incorporated in the later Laws "On the territories of advanced social and economic development", "On the free port of Vladivostok" and "On free ports in the Russian Federation".

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