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SEAFARERS' UNION OF RUSSIA
A NON-UNIONIZED SEAFARER
IS AN UNPROTECTED SEAFARER
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Seven crew members of the M/V “Sea Alexa” (flag of Tanzania) have come back home from South Korea. Whether they will receive the promised wages in the amount of $35,000 is unknown, but the Far Eastern Transport Investigation Devision of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation has already joined the settlement of this labor dispute.
The M/V “Sea Alexa” became notorious when six crew members
contacted the SUR for assistance in obtaining wages and on repatriation from
the port of Busan (South Korea). Following the intervention of the trade union,
the seafarers received their backwages and were able to return to Russia. Other
members of the crew agreed to stay on board and wait for the flight to
Vladivostok, they hoped to receive the owed money on arrival to Russia.
Today it became known that the vessel was sold by representatives of the company "Morkonservis" to another owner – Vladivostok-based "Vector-K". Nikolay Sukhanov, the Chairman of the Far Eastern Territorial Organization of the Seafarers' Union of Russia (SUR FETO) said that representatives of the International Transport Workers’ Federation in Busan warned the seafarers not to sign off the vessel until the debt is paid, but they believed the employer who promised them to pay off the debt upon the arrival at home, so they left the vessel.
Upon return to Vladivostok, the seafarers held a meeting with a new owner of the “Sea Alexa”- the company “Vector-K”. The crew members which signed off the vessel earlier, also attended the meeting, they sent an appeal to the Investigation Committee complaining about the non-payment of wages in the amount of about $52 000.
During the negotiations, the new shipowner told the seafarers that he didn't intend to pay the debts and advise them to contact the former owner of the ship, the company “Morkonservice”. In light of this, the crew members turned to the representatives of the Far Eastern Transport Investigation Devision of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation and asked for assistance.
At present, the Investigation Committee is verifying the situation upon the complaint received from the seafarers. According to Nikolay Sukhanov, the core of the problem is that the seafarers before set off to the vessel, signed employment agreement with a foreign company though their employer was the company Morkonservis. So now it is a big problem to recover their back wages.
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