The crew of the reefer Odin is not paid again

Crewmembers on board the reefer ODIN (flag of the Russian Federation, IMO 8320834) did not receive wages from February to April 2020.  In total, shipowner Primportservice LLC delayed more than 700 000 rubles. The fact of the debt was established by the Primorsky transport Prosecutor's office after nine seafarers applied for assistance.

According to the Agency, in the interests of the crewmembers, the transport Prosecutor applied for the court with claims for recovery of wages and compensation for late payment from Primportservice LLC. The Frunzensky court of Vladivostok has already considered the case, having satisfied the Prosecutor's requests in full. Currently the actual repayment of the debt is under control of the transport department.

In addition, according to the Prosecutor's orders, the magistrate of the judicial district № 20 of the Sovetsky district of Vladivostok found the company and its head guilty of committing an administrative offense under part 7 of article 5.27 of the Administrative Code of the Russian Federation in terms of non-payment of wages by a person who had previously been subjected to administrative punishment for a similar offense. Indeed, this is not the first case of non-payment of salary due to seafarers from the reefer Odin. A little more than a year ago, the ship's crew applied to the primary Trade Union organization of seafarers of the Seafarers Union of Russia in Vladivostok for assistance in obtaining a salary. The Chairman of the trade union committee, Petr Osichanskiy, noted that since December 2018 the employer did not pay seafarers even a "white" salary, although it was a peanuts. As a result, on April 26, 2019, the port state control (PSC) of Busan detained a Russian ship due to the MLC violations in terms of non-payment of wages. Then the shipowner, referring to the difficult financial situation, asked the seafarers to wait, agreeing with them to pay in two stages: the first part of the money he transferred immediately, the other promised to give later, as it was prescribed in the letters of guarantee.

Since this is a repeat offense from the company’s side, the justice of the peace imposed a fine on the legal entity and disqualification on the official for a period of 1 year and 6 months. We add that seafarers who used to serve on board this vessel,  have been complaining about unpaid wage for the past 10 years, so it is better to weigh the pros and cons before join the reefer.