ITF recovers $1 lakh arrears of shipping crew

The International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF) has recovered $1,00,000 as arrears to crew of 10 vessels, plying under the flag of convenience (FOC) at major ports of the country.

FOC ships fly a flag other than that of their owner's country. Shipowners sign up FOC registries because the vessels under it attract less fees and taxes. The environmental laws and regulations are also weaker for such vessels.

Bermuda, Malta, Singapore and Panama are popular FOC destinations for shipping companies which want to skip tax burden and regulations.

As part of a week-long South Asian campaign against FOC, in an inspection by the affiliated members of ITF, including Transport & Dock Workers Union (T&DWU), National Union of Seafarers of India (NUSI) and Maritime Union of India (MUI), found that crew of such vessels were under-paid.

"The campaign in the city alone has revealed that the crew in five vessels were under-paid and their wage arrears were withheld. The vessels that were not giving standard wages were forced to comply to the ITF agreement on standard wages," said S R Kulkarni, president, All India Port & Dock Workers Federation, and chairman, ITF (Dockers Section-Asia-Pacific).

The campaign was headed by T&DWU R M Murthy, P K Raman (secretaries), Kersi Parekh (vice-president), Joseph Varghese (organising secretary, NUSI), and M R Rajamani (treasurer, MUI). MV Selcon, MV X-Press Kailash, MV Milena-1, MV Deja Bhum, MV ISE, MV Delmas Sycamore and MV Mamitasa were among the vessels that were inspected by the team.

Murthy said the campaign here culminated in an agreements with MV Selcon and MV X-Press Kailash. The vessels disbursed over $35,000 to the crew by way of arrears in wages to which they were entitled. Other shipowners are also taking steps to conclude the agreement for standard wages.

Murthy said vessel owners and agents have also agreed to remit $3,250 to ITF as welfare measure.

"More ship agents from the city have agreed to the standard wage settlement. This will be over $1,00,000, in addition to the disbursed amount," Raman said. He said over 100 vessels were inspected in the South Asian ports and FOC vessels originating from Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and other countries were not paying standard wages to their crew.

"Action on the Maltese flag vessel MV Selcon at the Mumbai Port brought its Bangladeshi owner to the negotiating table. He agreed to pay arrears worth $20,000 to the crew," Murthy said. The activists exposed similar exploitation on board a Panama flagged vessel MV X-Press Kailash.

"Though the shipowners argued they were planning to bring the vessel under the Indian flag, T&DWU insisted on paying wage arrears worth $15,000," he added.

Raman pointed out that sailors working on FOC ships were given very low wages.

WAGE FACTOR

A flag of convenience (FOC) ship is one that flies the flag of a country other than the country of the ship's owner

Flying a flag of convenience helps the owners of big merchant ships to save big money

The initial registration of the ship in an FOC country is cheaper, and annual tonnage fees are also far lower than in the country of ownership