Under the ITF collective agreement working conditions are better

The inspectors of the Far Eastern territorial organization of the Seafarers Union of Russia visited the vessel Top Fortune (IMO 9763887) owned by the Fair Weather Steam Ship Co Ltd in the port of Nakhodka. The vessel under the flag of Panama is not covered by the ITF collective agreement, so the crew is paid low wages. Nikolay Sukhanov, the chairman of the FETO SUR, stressed that the seafarers should receive more. The vessel arrived from Japan and the next port of discharge will be a port in China. On board is a Chinese crew consisting of 23 seafarers. According to the documentation submitted to the union inspectors, the salary of an AB is US $ 1014, and that of a captain is US $ 3,800. «These figures do not meet the requirements of the ITF for ships under flags of convenience. The ITF collective agreement guarantees that the AB must have at least $ 1,750, and the captain-within $ 6,000», - said Nikolay Sukhanov. After conversation with the crewmembers, it became clear that they had no idea about the existence of the maritime trade union in Hong Kong, and also did not know about the International Transport Workers Federation. It turned out that they had not heard about the flag of convenience either.

«For our part, we tried to tell the Chinese seafarers about the system of convenient flags, explained why some shipowners choose cheap registers, what benefits a collective agreement provides to the seafarers. Naturally, we recommended the crewmembers to join the trade union, which must be an affiliated member of the ITF. They were impressed that working on a ship covered by the ITF collective agreement they could earn significantly more money»,"- N. Sukhanov added.

In addition, representatives of the FETO SUR raised an important topic of insurance. So, if the vessel is covered by ITF collective agreement in the event of the death of a seafarer on board, his family can

receive at least 100 thousand US dollars. By the way, Top Fortune has insurance certificates in accordance with the requirements of the Maritime Labor Convention, but the crewmembers do not know how much their health and lives are insured. After conversation, the Chinese seafarers took an action against flags of convenience and asked the representatives of the FETO SUR to send a notice of warning to the shipowner with the request to sign the ITF collective agreement.

It remains to add that the seafarers were invited to visit the International Maritime Club, where they can get free of charge, using a special bus.