Marine solidarity in action

On June 9, the ITF Inspectorate  in Vladivostok received a request from Australian colleagues who asked to visit the m/v Pacific Cebu (IMO 9254460, flag of Panama) with a Filipino crew on board. At that time, the contracts of employment of 14 of the 20 crewmembers have been expired and eight of them had been working on board for 12 months. A few days later, the same complaint was received from the crew itself via email. On 15 June, ITF inspector Petr Osichanskiy visited the bulk carrier and found gross violations of the 2006 Maritime Labour Convention.

– The main problem was the repatriation and payment of wages, the total debt for which for 3 months amounted to about 100 thousand us dollars, he said.  This was the reason for the visit of authorized officials due to violation of the requirements of the standard A. 5. 2. 1.6 MLC.

The vessel was not covered by the ITF collective agreement. The inspector sent a letter to the shipowner, the Greek company Maritime Enterprises Management SA, demanding to enter into negotiations on signing an agreement with the trade union and asked the ITF agreement department in London to resolve this issue. His representative, Alex Young, said that the company, which has been silent since January 2020, has agreed to return to the negotiation process for the conclusion of a contract approved by the ITF, and this process should be completed in the near future. In addition, in order to resolve the problems of the Philippine crew, a contact was established with the ITF coordinator in Greece, Stamatis Kourakos. On June 18, he sent a confirmation that the crew had been paid for three months (March, April, may) in the amount of 94,247 US dollars. The seafarers thanked the ITF inspector for his assistance and a traditional event of solidarity between seafarers and international trade unions was held. – The issue of discharging of the crewmembers at the end of the contract is still difficult, - said Petr Osichanskiy.  Seafarers are in fact deprived of the fundamental right for leave provided for in Rule 2.4 of the MLC. Since it is not possible to repatriate foreign crewmembers from Russia due to restrictions related to coronavirus, the shipowner said that this issue will be resolved at the next ports of call in China or, more likely, in Korea. In general, this case is an example of maritime solidarity in action.  Thanks to the cooperation of representatives of the ITF and trade union organizations in Russia, Australia, Greece and England, an important part of the problems of Filipino sailors was solved in the Russian port of Vladivostok.