ITF is watching North-Western Shipping Company

Vessels of «North-Western Shipping Company» (NWSC) soon might be boycotted worldwide by all affiliates of the International Transport Workers Federation, said Sergey Fishov, the ITF coordinator in Russia.

There are solid grounds for the boycott, taking into consideration scanty earnings of seafarers at NWSC. An able seaman’s standard rate, for example, equals just 9,700 Rubles (approx. USD275). Working conditions of crew members are unacceptable for the ITF. Thus labour contract stipulates that if a seafarer wants to leave the vessel by his own desire he must cover travel expenses of a relief.

The ITF became aware of these violations after the «Bratislava» vessel (flag of Russia) was inspected in the port of Gdynia, Poland. It was checked by Andrzej Koscik, an ITF inspector of one of the strongest unions in the world, «Solidarnosc».

Andrzej Koscik was going to make a routine inspection of the collective agreement, declaration of maritime labour compliance, individual contracts and terms of payment. Some of the documents were available but they were shown rather reluctantly. The inspector was deeply surprised when he saw crew members’ contracts with the terms of payment in them. As the labour conditions did not correspond to the requirements of the Maritime Labour Convention, 2006, and the documents were available only in Russian, the question of the MLC certification was put point blank.

It turned out that the collective agreement was signed between the shipping company and one of the primary organizations of the Water Transport Workers’ Union of Russia (WTWUR), which is not affiliated with the ITF since 1997 when its ITF membership was suspended because its activity contradicted principles and policies of the ITF. 17 years after that decision proved to be absolutely right.

Members of the WTWUR are paid scanty wages which do not meet the recommendations of the International Labour Organization. According to these recommendations a standard rate of an able seaman should make at least 585 US dollars since 01 January 2014.

Andrzej Koscik sent a notice to the North-Western Shipping and recommended them to contact the ITF coordinator Sergey Fishov for further negotiations on a collective agreement approved by the ITF.

«If the «North-Western Shipping» violates the norms of the MLC and denies contacting with the ITF, we shall pay a very close attention to their vessels, - stressed Sergey Fishov. – According to the policy of the ITF, a standard rate aboard the vessels flying national flags should not be lower than the ILO rates and these vessels must be covered by a collective agreement of a national seafarers’ union affiliated with the ITF. In our country the only union affiliated with the ITF is the Seafarers’ Union of Russia».