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SEAFARERS' UNION OF RUSSIA
A NON-UNIONIZED SEAFARER
IS AN UNPROTECTED SEAFARER
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Several ships of
Turkish AKDENIZ RORO DENIZ were detained
on charges of the MLC
violation in Novorossiysk. They have bad
technical conditions and the crew are
often “forgotten” to pay salaries. The seafarers were able
to recover the few-month wage arrears through the
joint efforts of the International Transport Workers'
Federation (ITF) and the Novorossiysk Port
State Control.
Among the detained vessels
are: Moldova-flagged Amazon (1978 built, IMO 7702657), Panama-flagged Aurelia (1998 built, IMO
9121895), Panama-flagged Ural (1980
built, IMO 7725386), Panama-flagged My
Rose (1984 built, IMO 8207381). All four
vessels are involved in the vegetable
and fruit shipments from Turkey to Novorossiysk and Gelendghik. The crew
of each ship consists of 10-15 persons, most of whom are from Turkey,
Georgia and Russia. There
are no collective agreements on board and the wage for a seaman or motorman doesn't exceed $700.
PSC often detains
the ships following their
technical problems. When the ITF inspector
and the Port State Control officers had interfered,
five Georgian seafarers from M/V My Rose
were repatriated from Istanbul and they
were paid $26,000 as wage arrears. The Ural
chief engineer recovered
four-month debt or $12,000. The Aurelia crew was paid
three-month debt or $71,000. Seafarers from Amazon also got their salaries
for few months.
“The work of Port State Control deserves of special words. Its attention to violation of the Maritime Labour Convention plays an important role. It helps seafarers in recovering their wages and
shows the most important thing, particularly that the MLC works in Russia and PSC
can influence on shipowners,”
Olga Ananina, the ITF inspector
in Novorossiysk, points out.
The Panama registry also gave its support: it specified
the amount of wage arrears
and seafarers' salary levels and
informed that they were following the
situation. “Actually the representatives of registries rarely respond to appeals,
consequently the readiness to contact and to apply pressure measures to shipowners is very pleased.”
“I can recommend to seafarers only to keep out of this shipowner,” Olga Ananina said. “Don't be afraid as soon as possible to seek help from unions if you are in such situation. You shouldn't wait for five months when a shipowner will pay your wage. Such issues often address after passing an appeal and sometimes through a threat to address to PSC.”
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