8th Congress of the SUR: FULL SPEED AHEAD!

On 11 November 2016, in St. Petersburg (Russia) the SUR held its 8^th Congress. It was attended by 115 delegates from all over the country, and a number of guests: ITF General Secretary Stephen Cotton, ITF President Paddy Crumlin, as well as representatives of Russian and foreign trade unions, Employers’ associations and maritime educational institutions. During the plenary meeting the delegates discussed a number of problems which the Russian maritime industry faces and possible solutions of those. Also, there were elections of the SUR President, SUR Council and other high union officers. The Congress was also notable because this is a jubilee year of the SUR which turned 25 years in November, 2016.

The Congress re-elected Yury Sukhorukov as the SUR President for the next five years. In his speech he praised progress in the union’s work aimed at protection of seafarers’ rights and interests during the last years; yet, he added that the SUR still has something to strive for.

“The SUR as an all-Russian trade union amalgamation of seafarers is now one of the biggest maritime transport unions not only in Russia but worldwide, too”, said Mr. Sukhorukov.

“In spite of the fact that the current situation in the world is difficult and some workers tend to start getting disappointed in trade union movement, the SUR keeps growing and developing. Today, the position of the SUR allows us to look to the future with confidence, and give even more attention to our members, the Russian seafarers, and protect their interests both in Russia and worldwide. I am proud that within these years we managed to start the programs long-awaited by seafarers. Yet, I would like to stress that we still have a lot of work to do. The SUR is not going to stop.”

“One of our new programs is medical insurance of seafarers between voyages. It covers seafarers working in shipping companies which make donations for medical insurance. They are insured for the premium in the amount of $20,000 US which can be paid to seafarers injured when ashore for a leave (proportionally to the degree of injury). Another type of insuring between voyages is voluntary medical insurance which is quite expensive, so this program can be realized only with ship owners who are ready to donate extra funds”, said Mr. Sukhorukov.

Also, the SUR and its constituent organizations allocate funds for direct assistance to seafarers who find themselves in difficult situations, as well as for medical treatment, recreation between voyages, recreational, sport and cultural events. Obviously, such a policy had top affect the union’s membership: during the reporting period, that is, from November, 2011 to November, 2016 the SUR membership grew up from 69,247 to 75,514 members; membership among the maritime and river transport educational institutions students expanded from 1,833 to 2,345; thereby, the SUR is now working on a centralized system of membership accounting.”

“This matter was several times discussed at the meetings of the SUR Council but could not find unanimous support. However, today such database is currently indispensible. Introduction of modern information technologies will seriously improve membership accounting”, said the SUR President. “All data will be in the electronic membership card and make possible establishing membership in one of SUR organizations and his movements within the SUR. This would help SUR organizations in their work and have a real picture of our membership”.

“Russia Is an Important Maritime State”

Delegates and guests of the Congress also talked about the current state of the maritime industry, mentioned such matters as decent remuneration to seafarers, gender policy, protection of the national maritime labour market, implementation of the Maritime Labour Convention (2006), problems of ship medicine and maritime education.

“Ship owners all over the world know that Russia is a serious maritime state, and Russian seafarers should be respected. Their hard labour supports the world economy so that you and your families could enjoy prosperity, comfort and secure life”, said Paddy Crumlin, ITF President.

Not Ready for the Manila Amendments

The Congress considered the problem of implementation in Russia requirements of the Maritime Labour Convention and the STCW Convention in the part pertaining to medical certification and medical services to seafarers. On 1 January 2017 the transitional period for the Manila STCW amendments implementation ends; this means formation a Registry of approved medical centers specializing in certification of seafarers. The SUR has repeatedly addressed the Ministry of Transport and the Ministry of Health Protection taking their attention to this matter but the requirements of the conventions have not been implemented yet. This can lead to the fact that the medical documents issued by Russian medical institutions of the Russian sailors, from 01 January 2017 will not be recognized as legitimate by other states. This could cause obvious problems both to Russian seafarers and ship owners; therefore, the SUR requested the Government to urgently (before 1 January 2017) adopt the necessary legal acts.

Checking the conditional of professional health is actually the key factor as, once a person is not fit for medical reasons, the whole set of the seafarer’s documents is considered invalid. The SUR would like to attract the attention of the Prime Minister of the Russian Federation to the situation with legal/ normative regulation of the medical certification and medical services to seafarers, so that urgent measures should be taken for its improvement.

Reforming Maritime Education: Problems

Also, the delegates discussed the maritime education which makes the people of the industry more and more concerned. The Resolution on this discussion says that the state policy on enlargement of maritime training institutions has resulted in destruction of their independence and the of healthy competition between them, deterioration of the quality of training of seafarers, and absence of guarantees of the trainees’ seagoing practice – while without such practice they cannot be issued their diplomas.

“Unfortunately for the whole system of maritime education, the idea of integration of maritime training institutions appeared. I cannot describe this idea in any other words but ‘deeply flawed and erroneous’. Before this integration, the higher maritime institutions’ status was changed: now they are called “academies” or “universities”, with numerous regional branches. These bran­ches look like poor stepdaughters and languish without getting proper financing. Not only the higher institutions do not need any branches – moreover, they’d rather get rid of them altogether”, says Alexander Krasnoshtan, Chairman of the SUR Northern Regional Organization.

“A striking example of this can be the Arctic Maritime Institute named after V. Voronin which was integrated with the Admiral Makarov State University of Maritime and River Fleet as its branch. Despite the title of the branch of the prestigious federal university the Arctic Maritime Institute has lost its face and slowly turns into a provincial vocational school – a place not to learn a proper maritime profession but to get any certificate at all. Vassalage from the head institution has already brought the V. Voronin Institute to a catastrophic situation: antediluvian training equipment, low salaries of special subjects teachers, no normal conditions for maritime practice and even shortage of textbooks negatively affect the quality of education and training. Another blow was the decision of the Ministry of Education to take students in secondary maritime schools without entrance examinations (basing only on competition of school certificates). With that, in 2015-2016 school years the passing score for future navigators was only 3.05, and 3.15 for engineers-to-be (out of 10). At the same time the Makarov University prohibited to its branches to accept 11^th class school graduates. As a result, most of the V. Voronin Institute cadets lack education for mastering the program”.

“We should also mention prohibition to secondary maritime schools graduates to take positions of senior ship officers. This norm established by the Regulations on certification of sea ships’ crews (Order of the Ministry of Transport No. 62) makes little sense for existence of the secondary maritime education”.

“The Ministry of Transport quotes the “two levels of responsibility” mentioned in the STCW Convention (1978). According to the Ministry, these two levels demand different levels of education, too: secondary [maritime] education should be enough for the “operating level” while only higher education can fit the “management level”, said Alexander Krasnoshtan. – “This is a completely wrong premise since the STCW Convention says that the only thing which permits moving to the higher level of responsibility is an approved work experience in the relevant position. The STCW Convention (1978) does not explain what kind of secondary or higher maritime education seafarers shall have; it only mentions the level of knowledge necessary to this or that specialist on board”.

“The Ministry’s specialists shortened the secondary maritime education for one year and at the same time declared such education as insufficient for promotion. They argue that modern seagoing vessels are equipped with the latest navigation and communication systems, and that only specialists with higher education can work with them. Today, the only way out for graduates of the secondary maritime schools is getting the higher education, too, which sounds absurd: with a diploma of a navigator or an engineer, they will have to start studying for a navigator or an engineer once again, for several years”, Krasnoshtan said.

A different problem exists for the cadets of the Admiral Makarov State University of Maritime and River Fleet: the University does not have a military chair. The cadets do not like the idea of serving on the armed forces for a year, and only after that look for a job. Yet, the SUR President Yury Sukhorukov thinks that the real problem is different:

“The situation is paradoxical: we have three higher maritime schools – in St. Petersburg, Novorossiysk and in the Far East. Strangely, the two latter institutions do have the military chair while the St. Petersburg Makarov University does not. We do not understand why such decision was made, as the military chair is not intended for getting a military or navy profession. The most important thing is the ability to act quickly in extreme situations, as a vessel is a high risk object and an officer shall learn to command, to prioritize correctly and keep his (or her) head. Without these important skills an officer will hardly be able to save lives of the people entrusted to him in an emergency like, for example, a storm or a fire”, Mr. Sukhorukov said.

The MLC Shall Be Duly Reflected in the Labour Code of the Russian Federation

Another matter important for SUR members was the full implementation of the Maritime Labour Convention (2006) in the Russian legislation. Therefore, the resolution on this matter suggests that the Russian Government re-considers the SUR’s suggestion to work out a draft Federal Law which should provide a complete reflection of its regulations in the Labour Code of the Russian Federation (LC RF), in the Merchant Shipping Code of the Russian Federation (MSC RF) and in other relevant federal laws.

Thus, Chairman of the SUR Far Eastern Regional Organization pointed out that the Port Authorities of Russia apply the sanctions provided for by the MLC for its violations with too much caution even though such violations including gross ones tend to be quite widespread. This could be explained by the fact that many violations which affect main rights of seafarers (such as the right for decent work and remuneration which imply work under a Contract of Employment with corresponding wages paid timely and in full, the right of association which includes the right for a trade union and for a Collective Agreement, and etc.) are not reflected in the Merchant Shipping Code of the Russian Federation.

The SUR has many times tried to turn the attention of the Ministry of Labour of the Russian Federation to the current situation yet the Ministry still refuses to consolidate the basic norms of the Convention into a special section of the LC RF, which should regulate specifics of transport workers’ labour.

This lack of complex approach to realization of the MLC-2006 significantly devalues the Convention and makes it less effective for protection of crewmembers’ rights. In Russia, due ways of cooperation between competent authorities for inspection of Russian seagoing vessels for their compliance with the Convention and the Port State Control authorities.

“The current Provisions for crewmembers’ work and rest periods, the remuneration system and the Model Labour Contract of a seafarer are outdated and shall be brought into compliance with the MLC-2006. We suggest to tighten requirements of the Russian Maritime Shipping Registry applicable for issuing the Declaration of Compliance to the Maritime Labour Standards. This is dictated by the results of our inspections of the Russian flag vessels in the Far East. Quite often we visit a ship and find out that, in spite of having the Declarations, the crewmembers work without proper contracts, and their wages are unpaid for two to four months. Moreover, sometimes we cannot find out what are the wages for the crew”, said Nikolai Sukhanov. “A vivid example of such practices could be the Korablestroitel Company, where the crews have regular problems with payment of wages. It was only after interference of the SUR when a declaration issued to m/v “Newzemberg”, owned by this company was declared null and void. Taking such problems into consideration we believe it necessary to provide for joint actions with the Registry in order to prevent issuance of the Declarations of Compliance to ship owners who violate seafa­rers’ rights and to adopt separate resolutions on the minimum amounts of wages and insurance premiums of seafarers”.

The Congress paid special attention to the matter of legalizing wages of seafarers working on Russian vessels. Unscrupulous ship owners often state the official wages of their crewmembers on the current official minimum salary (which is about seven thousand Rubles), with the balance paid unofficially or as a “bonus”. The SUR believes that this problem should be solved by establishing the official minimum wage basing on the Minimum Wage which is from time to time set by the ILO Joint Maritime Commission.

“Merchant shipping is one of the most globalized industries. It’s true that compared to workers ashore seafarers have higher wages but there are reasons for this. Seafaring professions are among the most dangerous ones, and the dangers threaten not only to seafarers themselves, to their lives, health and prosperity but to their families as well. I deeply respect the people who chose this profession for their courage and tenacity. We would not be able to move goods and develop economy without them. World leaders tend to overlook the important role played by members of the crews of merchant ships in national and world economy. This is why it is so important to have a strong trade union protecting seafarers’ rights for decent working conditions and remuneration. The SUR is exactly one of such unions and at this Congress we can see how representatives of organizations from all over the world by their presence express their respect to Russian seafarers, the SUR and its President Brother Yury Sukhorukov who leads it forward”, said Stephen Cotton, the ITF General Secretary.

Foreign Seafarers on Russian Vessels

The SUR is also worried by the danger of Russian seafarers losing their jobs due to using foreign citizens as crewmembers of Russian vessels. The current legislation demands that Russian ship owners obtain permissions for hiring foreign seafarers. Yet, a series of the Government’s legislative initiatives on so-called “free port zones” this permission-based procedure for the residents of these areas, including ship owners, should be abolished. The problem of keeping the jobs is also bigger due to thousands of Crimean seafarers who have serious obstacles to getting employed in the world labour market, due to political matters.

“The SUR takes a firm stand on this issue”, said the SUR President, “In the zones of national interests usage of foreign working force shall be banned. The reasons for this are the strategic nature and scope of the work, harsh working conditions, and possible damages to the labor interests of Russian citizens. The matter has repeatedly raised at the meetings in the Ministry of Transport, and last year the Ministry officials have at last heard the union’s position and agreed that the matter is really important and worth attention and interference by the Ministry”.

Taking all the factors into account, the Congress made a proposal to discontinue the preparation and adoption of the laws abolishing the permission-based order of employing foreign seafarers on Russian vessels, and to reconsider the laws which are already adopted. Moreover, the SUR believes it necessary to ban usage of foreigners’ labour on the works on production and sea transportation of hydrocarbons in the continental shelf of the Russian Federation, and in the Arctic zone of Russia.

New Terms of the Issuance of SIDs Is a Headache for Seafarers

The delegates of the Congress expressed concern on the possible increase in the maximum period of registration of seafarers' identity documents (SIDs) to six and a half months from existing 15 days. As was explained in the Russian Ministry of Transport, such a period is necessary to check the sailors against their possible involvement in extremist or terrorist activities. It is believed by the congress participants that the planned change in the existing order of issuance of SIDs will lead to a breach of seafarers' rights to work in the chosen profession guaranteed by Article 37 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation. SUR considers that current counterterrorism and counter-extremism legislation provides opportunity to familiarize oneself with the list of organizations and individuals in respect of which there is evidence of their involvement in terrorist or extremist activities, and this list is publicly available. The Congress put forward a proposal to the government to abandon the intention to increase the term of SID registration to six and a half months, and to ensure constitutional right of Russian seafarers to freely dispose of their abilities to work, choose the type of activity and profession.

– The increase does not augur well for positive results. The crew needs to be formed, they are prepared for sailing and, quite of a sudden, you should wait for documents six and a half months. Moreover, every five years, the procedure will be repeated again and again. A ship owner, especially a foreign one, why would he wait? He would rather employ a Filipino, and our seafarers will go without working, – Yury Sukhorukov says.

Professionalism Has Nothing to Do with It

The Congress Resolution, “On the violation of women's right to work in the chosen occupation or profession in relation to the possibility of their work as crew members of maritime and river fleet”, was equally important. Delegates drew attention to the growing role of women in today's shipping industry as well as the difficulties they face in employment. The Seafarers’ Union of Russia have repeatedly drawn attention to the existing legislation regarding regulating of women’s labor that restricts their right to work in harmful and/ or hazardous working conditions under the pretext of protection of their health.

The SUR believes that this kind of legislation reflects the existing stereotypes regarding the roles and responsibilities of women and men in society and supports the traditional view of the role of women as mother and wife thereby diminishing their social status and educational and career prospects. In addition, hard labour and work in harmful or hazardous working conditions is equally a negative impact on the health of both women and men. That is why the security requirements should be the same for all employees, regardless of their gender.

The Congress plenary session was briefed by Svetlana Medvedeva who was not allowed to pass the practice as a navigator with the Samara River Passenger Company (SRPP) for more than three years due to the fact that the work performed by motorman-steersman has been recognized as being “harmful to women”.

− In 2012, I tried to get a job with the Samara River Passenger Company as a motorman-steersman, but was refused on the basis of the Russian Federation Government Decree No. 162 of 25 February 2000. Together with Vyacheslav Anokhin, Chairman of the SUR Central and West-Siberian Territorial Organization I submitted a complaint to the Department of Labour and Employment of the Samara Region, the Federal Labour and Employment Service (Rostrud), the President, the Commissioner for Human Rights (Ombudsman) in Samara and several political parties. Almost all of the above referred to the Government Decree's Annex stipulating that employer, if he wants, may employ a woman after safe working conditions are created, which should be confirmed by the outcomes of workplace assessment. But the Go­vernment does not oblige employer to take these measures, – says Svetlana Medvedeva.

Medvedeva submitted a complaint to the court, to make SRPP to create necessary working condition for women. But the district and regional courts sided with the employer and the application was refused. In a year, Svetlana filed a complaint with the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women. Her claim was considered in March 2016.

− The Committee was not provided with any evidence that the inclusion of the position of motorman-steersman in the list of prohibited occupations is based on any scientific evidence proving that this profession can be harmful to women's reproductive health. In this case, the emphasis is made on the fact that the parameters of noise, lifting heavy weights and vibration are harmful to the health of a pregnant woman, to be more precise, to developing of human fetus. The ban to select a profession is being justified by the care about reproductive health of women. Yet, nobody asks them whether they want to have children, or whether they have already got children. Sterilization, infertility, exceeding of childbearing age are not exceptions for work permit, – said Svetlana.

The members of the Committee sided with Svetlana Medvedeva, and made a number of recommendations to the Government of the Russian Federation as a UN member state, but no response has been received neither from the employer nor from the Government. The Samara courts have not considered the decision of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women to be a sufficient basis for resolving the case, as well.

However, Svetlana is not willing to go down without a fight, and together with the SUR will continue to struggle for her right to work and self-fulfilment within the chosen profession.

– Discrimination against professional women is legalized at the state le­vel. The list of prohibited professions exist not only in Russia but also in many post-Soviet States, and these lists are almost identical, – complains Svetlana Medvedeva.

We Have what to Strive for

The Congress determined the main directions of the SUR’s activities for the period 2016 to 2021.

Primarily, the SUR will focus on strengthening of control on seafarers’ employment, increasing of wages for crewmembers of vessels flying the State Flag of the Russian Federation, creation of minimum insurance payment in the amount of not less than $40,000 US in case of death or disability of a seafarer as a result of an accident occurred on board the vessel.

Besides, there are plans to improve legal support for fishermen and their organizing within the SUR with possible establishment in the structure of the Union of a specialized fishing section. Within this context, speaking at the plenary session Vadim Mamontov, Chairman of the SUR Kaliningrad RO, drew the delegates’ attention to the problems faced by workers in the fishing industry.

– The main problem is that in Russia there is not a Union protecting the interests of fishermen which would act as a mediator between the government and the community of ship owners and commercial fishing ventures. Now when the Maritime Labour Convention and trade unions affiliated with the ITF are working to defend seafarers’ rights, the fishermen of sea and inland fishing are lacking that support. We need to think about the creation of a separate organization for Russian fishermen, – said Vadim Mamontov. – Development, on the basis of the SUR, of a section which will organize fishermen, will afford, in future, to re-register it in an inter-regional trade union of fishermen of Russia that will be followed by the founding congress, creation of the Fishermen’s Union of Russia and affiliation of this new organization with the ITF.

An equally important task will be to find new approaches to heighten the Union membership motivation, create the Union’s primary organizations, strengthen the Union’s institutional capacities and improve the efficiency of the territorial organizations.