Representatives of the Far Eastern Territorial Organization of the SUR have been denied access to JSC Astafiev Terminal

The Far Eastern territorial organization of the Seafarers Union of Russia appealed to the Nakhodka Transport Prosecutor with a request to help resolve the issue of unhindered access to the JSC Astafiev terminal of the port of Nakhodka. The fact is that the management of the terminal refused to issue permanent pass to the representatives of the union for 2021, referring to the unfavorable sanitary and epidemiological situation in the Primorsky Territory and measures to contain coronavirus infection.

The trade union believes that this is a violation of the Federal Law «On Trade Unions, their Rights and Guarantees of Activity. In particular, it states that trade union representatives have the right to freely visit the workplaces of their members. The refusal to issue passes can negatively affect the working conditions of seafarers. In fact, this will untie the hands of unscrupulous companies that operate the fleet under a flag of convenience without the collective agreement. Thus shipowners can take advantage of the fact that the union is prohibited from meeting with seafarers on board ships, and begin to violate their rights. For example, delay wages, delay repatriation, or reduce supply costs. It will be extremely difficult to help the crewmembers under these conditions.» - explains the chairman of the Far Eastern territorial organization of the SUR Nikolai Sukhanov.

In addition, in his opinion, the reason for the refusal to issue a pass lies not only in the unfavorable sanitary and epidemiological situation. So, in 2019, the public drew attention to the activity of this terminal when the residents of the nearby district complained that when loading coal, a lot of dust is formed, which gets into the residential buildings of the neighborhood.

«Currently the problem has been fixed and the loading of ships at the terminal is strictly controlled through constant environmental monitoring. However, we think that the management of the terminal just afraid to issue permits to the representatives of FETO SUR, because we plan to monitor the handling of coal and the environment in order to improve the working conditions of seafarers on board the vessels, which are moored at the terminal. » It is noteworthy that the trade union was refused only to visit the JSC Astafiev Terminal of the Nakhodka commercial sea port. The required passes have already been issued for the remaining berths of the port, at least more than 20 of them, including the Vostochny port. «We firmly believe that in order to minimize the chance of infection we have to strictly apply the precautionary measures and security, but not to ban from the vessel’s visits», says the leader of FETO SUR Nikolai Sukhanov.