There is no collective agreement on m/v “Winner”

Today inspectors of the Far-Eastern regional organization of the Seafarers Union of Russia boarded the m / v “Winner” moored in the commercial sea port of Nakhodka. As it turned out during the inspection there is no ITF collective agreement on board although this is the only document that can protect seafarers on a board of the vessel under the flag of convenience.

The “Winner” (built in 2001, flying the flag of the Republic of Togo, IMO 9254783, deadweight 2300 tons) was under the loading of lumber for the ports of Japan. The shipowner and operator is Emerald Invest LP from Northern Ireland. The crew is completely Russian, all 17 people were hired by the Roma crewing company in Vladivostok.

«The vessel is not covered by ITF collective agreement. The base rate of AB is 350 US dollars, the captain’s salary is 3000 US dollars. Individual contracts of employment are available. The seafarers' contracts were signed on behalf of Emerald Invest by proxy agent Sergey Pushin, but the phone number and address of this agent are not indicated anywhere, the contract is stamped by a foreign company», - said Nikolai Sukhanov, chairman of the Far Eastern  regional organization of the SUR.  

The declaration, part II, was also signed by the representative of the Irish company Emerald Invest and againby proxy, by citizenArkadyKhmelevsky. The address and telephone number in Russia are also missing.In fact it turns out that in case of a dispute or a delay in the payment of wages it will be impossible to achieve their payment in Russia as well as it is impossible to find a representative of the shipowner in Russia.

«In such a situation the only way to obtain the payment of wage arrears is to arrest a ship in a Russian port by court order or by decision of the seaport administration,» - Nikolay Sukhanov explained.Meanwhile any collective agreement was found on board but signed between the shipowner - Emerald Invest and the Roma crewing company (which no longer exists according to the extract from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities). And the crewing company did not have a license for employment abroad. 

«But even if we omit this fact it turns out that the foreign employer has signed a collective agreement with the personnel department which hires sailors in Russia,»-says the chairman of the FERO. - We explained to the captain that this document is not a collective agreement protecting the rights of seafarers but only an Agency agreement between the employer and the crewing. We also told seafarers that the absence of an ITF collective agreement in principle allows the shipowner to establish his laws and regulations on board the ship. And this is unacceptable. 

Therefore the captain of the ship, who incidentally is a member of the SUR, was informed that a notice would be sent to the company demanding the conclusion of an ITF collective agreement.

In addition,according to an extract from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities,Roma LLC was also liquidated and it did not have a license to work abroad.So illegal activity is there ... As for insurance certificatesas required by the MLC 2006- everything is in order with them, they are availableon board. Seafarers are insured in the Russian insurance company "Consent". By the way,they said that in case of death the company pays 30 000 US dollars to the relatives of the deceased seafarer, 3 000 for children under the age of 21, 2 000 for burial. The crewmembers were given reference books on the rights of seafarers as well as fresh SUR magazines and newspapers.