Ministry Of Labour Tries To Avoid Resolving The Issues In Every Possible Way

A meeting of the Council of the Federation of  Maritime  Transport Workers' Unions (FMTWU) took place  in Moscow. The representatives of the FMTWU affiliated organizations were involved in the meeting. They  told about the situation in their organizations. An employer still all-out attacks on independent unions and many of such organizations have a tough time, pointed out Valentin Sirotyuk, the Chairman of  the Russian Maritime Transport Workers' Union (RMTWU).

“As our employer says situation in the Crimean seaports is tough, but steadily improving,” - said the Chairman of the Maritime Transport Workers' Union of  the Republic of Crimea (MTWURC) Irina Chernenko concerning the situation in that organization. Workers are in a troubled waiting and prepare to reduction after liquidation of OOO Morskaya Direktsia, the operator of the  Kerch Strait ferry line. The staff will be reduced but no one  knows when it will occur, how many people and who exactly will loss their jobs - may be in two weeks, may be in  a month. As of January 1, the personnel of the State Unitary Enterprise of the Republic of Crimea Krymskie Morskie Porty (Crimean Seaports) included 2725 workers and 2178 of them – are the members of MTWURC. The situation got worse when the State Unitary Enterprise of the Republic of Crimea Lotsman-Krym had joined to the Crimean Seaports enterprise.  The sanctions also make worse the situation – there is no cargo traffic by sea and the only hope  is a  bridge being built across  the Kerch Strait which will connect the peninsula and the mainland. Possibly the economic conditions would begin to change after that, but until then we have to wait.  Vasily Kozarenko, the Russian Dockers' Union Chairman, said that the contracted work system still actively  uses in ports, but the state authorities turn a blind eye on such situation.

Last October the Chairman FMTWU Yury Sukhorukov appealed to the such departments of Russia as the Labour Ministry, Transport Ministry and the Labour and Employment Federal Service. In his appeal Sukhorukov pointed out  to the legislative  ban on using  the dock engineers' labour by the private employment agencies   on the  outstaffing base. As well as the working conditions of dock engineers are objectively harmful and dangerous, Sukhorukov reminded of the banning on their contracted work in according to the ILO Convention on Social Repercussions  of New Methods of Cargo Handling in Ports (No.137) and the Convention on Occupational Safety and  Health in Dock Work (No.152). The Chairman reminded that the  Transport Ministry of Russia shares the FMTWU's position. As we know,  it was marked  on June 27, 2017 during the meeting between the  Transport Minister  Maxim Sokolov  and the all-Russia trade unions' leaders, representing the interests of maritime and river transport workers. Also the appeal has shown that contracted work scheme has a lot  of negative effects.  For example, under  Article 341.4  of the  Labour Code of Russia the industrial accident investigation  doesn't allow  to trade unions' representatives and the State Labour Inspectorate officials to  participate  in the  investigation process and, as a consequence, there is a possibility to hide the facts in the interests  of representatives who  sending  or receiving outstaffing.  Using the contracted work causes such  negative effects as  infringement of dock engineer  rights  on early grant  of  insurance old-age pension (violation of Article 30, Paragraph 1, Sub-paragraph 8  of the Federal Law on Insurance Pensions). The irregular employment of dock engineers   in  cargo handling leads to  the  need  of getting  an appropriate work experience. As a result it can inevitably cause the violation of the above mentioned dockers' right. But there  are more breaches  in this list. The FMTWU  and  the  Dockers' Union of Russia seek to  prepare  the draft amendments to the Federal Act on Employment  in the Russian Federation (Article 18.1, Paragraph 13). The Employment Act prohibits  the outstaffing of machine operators (dock engineers) involved in the cargo handling in seaports. Also  the Federation's appeal   has  indicated the need of  labour compliance review by cargo handling businesses, especially the stevedore companies and the  private recruitment agencies and the  other similar organizations providing commercial employment services. In order  to appropriate inspections, the Maritime  Transport Workers Unions' Federation recommends to hold consultations with the Dockers' Union of Russia  and  define  the  list of such organizations.

“Ministry of Labour tries to avoid resolving the issues in every possible way,” - Vasily Kozarenko addressed to the participants of FMTWU Council. “We have got an answer but actually it looks like a  runaround. According to the letter, the inspections require very substantial reasons such as personal injury or environmental  damage, etc. and that all our  arguments against the outstaffing  are subjective  and have no specific facts.”

The participants of the FMTWU Council come to unanimous decision to continue the work on the outstaffing ban.