SCOCEEN is ready for negotiations with shipowners

The 74th annual working meeting of the Seafarers Committee of Central, Eastern Europe and Norway was held in Bucharest (Romania) at the end of June. Representatives of maritime trade unions from Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Bulgaria, Norway, Croatia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania and Georgia took part in the event. Chairman of the Seafarers' Union of Russia Yury Sukhorukov and the SUR Vice Chairman Vadim Ivanov represented the interests of Russian maritime workers. It's worth noting that there are more Russian seafarers working on board of Norwegian vessels than seafarers of other nationalities.

Employers also attended the meeting as guests. The Association of Norwegian Shipowners presented its fleet, which, to date, has 1,585 vessels that are registered in the Norwegian International (Second) Ship Register (NIS) and under the flag of convenience (FOC). Since there are not many Norwegian seafarers in the world, local shipowners hire crew members from other countries. It is no secret that Russian seafarers are especially popular for their expertise.

For information, there are 804 Russian seafarers working on NIS vessels, and 982 Russians work on FOC vessels. Taking into account the replacement, we are talking about 3,572 jobs for specialists from Russia. The Russians are followed by Ukrainians, Poles, Latvians and Croatians.

According to Vadim Ivanov, the level of seafarers' salaries, amendments to the collective agreement and the state of the shipping industry as a whole were among issues discussed at the SCOCEEN meeting: "We regularly develop a joint stance on the working conditions of seafarers before the upcoming negotiations with the Association of Norwegian Shipowners,  which aim to find common ground between trade unions and employers in a bid for  labor rights of crew members employed on Norwegian companies' vessels."

It should be added that this year the Seafarers Committee of Central, Eastern Europe and Norway celebrates its 30th anniversary. As part of the celebration of the anniversary, the SUR Chairman Yury Sukhorukov  was awarded a commemorative token for his contribution to the work of SCOCEEN. 

Indeed, SUR is immensely engaged in the  SCOCEEN activity, which had been established by  the initiative of Norwegian maritime trade unions to negotiate with Norwegian shipowners together with trade unions of labor-supplier countries. Russia is essential talent pool  for the fleet of Norwegian shipowners.

 — Creating decent working conditions for Russians employed on vessels  of the Norwegian International (Second) Ship Register and on board  flags of convenience vessels is one of the priority tasks of SUR, — Vadim Ivanov said. — It is being successfully addressed thanks to long-term and strong relations with Norwegian employers and fraternal trade unions -  SCOCEEN members.