Seafarer from Arkhangelsk managed to take away by court action the debt JSC Northern Shipping Company owed him

The Court of Appeal upheld the decision of the court of first instance, which ruled to satisfy the claims of the employee filed  against the Northern Shipping Company and to recover from the company in his favor RUB27,830 - the unpaid surcharge of the currency component instead of per diems for the period of the foreign voyage. The seafarer was represented before the court by Igor Telyatyev, legal adviser of the Northern Territorial Organization of the Seafarers’ Union of Russia (NTO SUR), and NTO SUR chief legal inspector Andrey Sidorov.

Recall that, the seafarer first  applied to SUR Primary Organization of the  JSC "Northern Shipping Company" in February. He had worked on board  the m/v "Inzhener Veshnyakov" for five months  and received less than RUB27,830.

The debt to seafarer accumulated due to the fact that the employer, without giving any reason, reduced the USD 14 in foreign currency to be paid instead of per diems according to the terms of the employment contract  to USD11 per day. As that, the seafarer received the agreed by the  parties amount of USD14 per day only for one month of work. According to Sergey Portenko, the Chairman of SUR Primary Organization of the  JSC "Northern Shipping Company", the entire seafaring personnel of the company found themselves in a similar situation.

Having received an appeal from the seafarer, the union representatives first sent a notice demanding to terminate the violation of labor legislation directly to the employer, but the shipping company refused to acknowledge any violations. An appeal to the State Labor Inspection for the Arkhangelsk Region and the Nenets Autonomous District  did not bring the desired results either. There were no details of the verification in the response letter. It only stated that the trade union's appeal did not contain information about  citizens' immediate threat of harm to life and health , as well as about such facts.

The letter also claimed  the company was issued a warning on the unacceptability of violating the law, without specifying in relation to what.

As the issue could not be resolved in that way, the trade union decided to apply to the Lomonosovsky District Court of Arkhangelsk. Although the representative of JSC "Northern Shipping Company" disagreed with the seafarer's claim, arguing the  plaintiff had missed the deadline for filing a lawsuit, the Lomonosovsky District Court, and then the Arkhangelsk Regional Court sided with the employee as a result of the appeal's  examination. 

Under the law, the employee is entitled to apply to court for resolution of an individual labor dispute on  non-payment or incomplete payment of wages and other payments due to him within one year from the date of the established deadline for payment of these amounts.  In the present case this condition was met: the seafarer had not received wages for October 2021-January 2022, and he applied to the court already in March 2022.

"The court of first instance arguments thoroughly examined the arguments  stated  there were no violations on the part of the employer, since the payment in question was not a component of wages, and  conveyed the invalidity of these arguments in the court ruling", - the appeal ruling of the Arkhangelsk Regional Court stated. So, the court did not allow the appeal filed by JSC "Northern Shipping Company".

According to Sergey Portenko, the Chairman of SUR Primary Organization of the  JSC "Northern Shipping Company", in early April the seafarer get the appeal  court ruling on  hands and the company finally  paid him the debt. “In the near future we are going to file a claim for compensation for the delaying for more than a year of wages”, - Sergey Portenko said. “We are also ready to assist all other seafarers faced with such problems and to advocate their  interests. As can be seen from this case, this is quite a feasible task.”

Photo – Marine Traffic