An Indian offshore ship has been detained in the UK for three offences including non-payment of wages to its crew, British officials said.
'Malaviya Seven' owned by Mumbai's GOL Offshore Limited was held at the coast of Aberdeen in Scotland over "missing" wages for its staff members and a lack of "calculation and payment of wages" record. Its "seafarers employment agreement" was also invalid, making it a total of three offences that provided the grounds for detention.
'Malaviya Seven' is among seven foreign flagged ships under detention in UK ports after failing a Port State Control (PSC) inspection last month.
The vessel was detained by the International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF) union with the support of the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) on June 15, the MCA said in a statement yesterday.
"When a ship is found to be not in compliance with applicable convention requirements, a deficiency may be raised. If any of their deficiencies are so serious they have to be rectified before departure, then the ship will be detained," the statement said.
The 'Malaviya Seven' is understood to have been chartered to carry out work for a number of companies, including BP, Dana Petroleum and Premier Oil.
"They (workers) just want to get paid and go home. However, we fear that their ordeal could drag on for weeks if not months because of the huge amount of money involved," said a spokesperson for seafarers' charity Apostleship of the Sea.
The UK is part of a regional agreement known as the Paris Memorandum of Understanding on Port State Control under which information on all ships inspected is held centrally in an electronic database.
