Defending seafarers
Seafarer welfare remains a thorny subject. Credit: Joe Ross
Six months in and the impact of the ILO’s Maritime Labour Convention has been restrained. Felicity Landon reports
When Port State Control officer Alan Thomson went onboard the Panama-flagged Donald Duckling at the Port of Tyne last November, he found that the crew hadn’t been paid, the fridges didn’t work, there was no food on board, and there was no money to buy food either.
He had been expecting problems – the vessel had previously been detained in Gibraltar for 120 days, there were reports of it breaking down mid-voyage and the crew fishing over the side for food, and it had been detained again in Las Palmas for non-payment of wages, lack of food onboard and problems with safety equipment.
With the Maritime Labour Convention in force since August 20, 2013 and the welfare of seafarers at the heart of the MLC requirements, one might assume that Mr Thomson’s form-filling and what happened next would be straightforward. Not a bit of it – because of the technicalities of ratification, the MLC doesn’t become law in the UK until August 7 this year, 12 months after the UK formally ratified the convention. Only on August 20, 2014, it will become enforceable everywhere.
Interestingly, the vessel had been given a clean bill of health on MLC issues in Las Palmas by an inspector on behalf of Panama, which has already adopted MLC into law. “I find that quite amazing, considering the vessel was already in detention for MLC issues,” says Mr Thomson, who is surveyor in charge, Maritime & Coastguard Agency (MCA) on the Tyne.
Bad news
He describes the Donald Duckling saga as ‘of nightmarish proportions all round’. Owned by the TMT Group of Taiwan, chartered by European Metal Recycling, flagged in Panama, classed by Japan’s ClassNK, and with a crew of 18 from Romania, India and the Philippines, it sounds like the classic ‘bad news’ shipping story we have all heard before.
In fact, says Mr Thomson, 96% of the requirements of MLC were previously covered in separate ILO conventions; until August 7 the UK continues to inspect for ILO compliance in this way, but it can’t actually record deficiencies under MLC.
The Donald Duckling developed into a stalemate; TMT had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, reportedly owing $800m, and there was little response from Panama, says Mr Thomson.
Technicalities about the precise definition of abandonment left the crew in limbo.
The Port of Tyne provided a lay-by berth and power supplies and worked with the Mission to Seafarers and other local charities which were providing food and clean drinking water for the crew.
Chain of responsibility
“This is exactly what the MLC was supposed to combat – it lays out who is responsible for what, and the shipowner is responsible for paying crew wages, meeting contractual obligations, providing adequate accommodation, light, heating, food and water. Clearly if you have not got fuel for your engines, you can’t run the engines, therefore there is no heating or lighting,” says Mr Thomson.
Representatives of the ITF (International Transport Workers’ Federation) also insisted that the vessel was abandoned but, at the eleventh hour, some (not all) of the crews’ owed wages arrived. “That meant one of the abandonment criteria under ILO was not ticked and technically the vessel wasn’t abandoned. That definition is going to change under MLC.”
Under MLC provisions, the vessel would be been defined as abandoned and it would then fall to the flag state – in this case Panama – to deal with repatriation of the crew. However, after two-and-a-half months no action had been taken.
DFDS Seaways offered the Romanian crew a free ferry crossing to Amsterdam, from where they made their way home. Eventually, the remaining crew were repatriated by the ITF, paying out of its funds.
Dead space
As Alan Thomson puts it, the last thing a port wants is a ‘dead ship’ on its hands. At the time of writing, the vessel was still in port. A spokeswoman for the Port of Tyne said: “The cargo vessel Donald Duckling remains detained by the MCA – and the ship is currently under arrest by its charterers, EMR. The ship is unmanned and to minimise the impact on commercial shipping and maintain the vessel’s security, it is berthed at the former McNulty Offshore Quay at South Shields.”
Despite all of this and despite his own obvious frustration over the situation, Mr Thomson says: “MLC is an excellent piece of legislation which will greatly help seafarers in the future. We are all feeling our way and it is still in its infancy.”
What’s clear is that had MLC already been law in the UK, the Donald Duckling situation could have been dealt with more decisively – for example, by the UK forcing the issue by repatriating the crew and then sending the bill to Panama.
Because of the year’s space between ratification and entry into force, there are some significant port states for whom MLC is not yet in force, says the ITF. “We are looking forward to the concentrated inspection regimes planned for later this year and next year by Paris MoU [Memorandum of Understanding on Port State Control] and Tokyo MoU,” says Jon Whitlow, secretary of the ITF seafarers’ section.
“We are constantly monitoring how the MLC is working and so far it’s living up to expectations,” he says. “It is proving a valuable tool for safeguarding seafarers’ rights, conditions and right to be paid. We are continuing to strive to get it in use as widely as possible, and are pushing for it to be ratified and effectively implemented by as many countries as possible.”
Crew counts
The ITF says the main issues for MLC detention so far are non-payment of wages for several months, inadequate provisioning and refusal to repatriate given breach of contract by the owner.
“All of these are serious issues, not matters of paperwork. There have not been obvious improvements yet but realistically it is still early for such a change to be visible,” says Mr Whitlow. “We don’t expect it to happen overnight. On the positive side, flag states are at least replying to complaints – even if they don’t take proper action, and port states are detaining on occasion. We continue to be frustrated over Panama’s refusal to take responsibility for vessels flying its flag.”
Pat Dolby, inspection operations manager at the MCA, says: “Generally, as has always been the case, if the ship is substandard in other areas, it will also be substandard in areas of crew health and welfare.”
The MLC is basically bringing together all maritime ILO conventions under one ‘super’ convention, he says. “We have always looked at ILO issues during PSC inspections under existing ILO conventions.
“The main change is that now there is an actual statutory certificate issued for MLC compliance – previously no ILO certification was issued – and there are more areas for detention of a ship for non-compliance, notably non-payment of wages, employment agreements and crew accommodation.”
– See more at: http://www.portstrategy.com/news101/port-operations/port-performance/defending-seafarers#sthash.8JReMDda.dpuf
***Defending seafarers
03 Apr 2014

Seafarer welfare remains a thorny subject. Credit: Joe Ross
Six months in and the impact of the ILO’s Maritime Labour Convention has been restrained. Felicity Landon reports
When Port State Control officer Alan Thomson went onboard the Panama-flagged Donald Duckling at the Port of Tyne last November, he found that the crew hadn’t been paid, the fridges didn’t work, there was no food on board, and there was no money to buy food either.
He had been expecting problems – the vessel had previously been detained in Gibraltar for 120 days, there were reports of it breaking down mid-voyage and the crew fishing over the side for food, and it had been detained again in Las Palmas for non-payment of wages, lack of food onboard and problems with safety equipment.
With the Maritime Labour Convention in force since August 20, 2013 and the welfare of seafarers at the heart of the MLC requirements, one might assume that Mr Thomson’s form-filling and what happened next would be straightforward. Not a bit of it – because of the technicalities of ratification, the MLC doesn’t become law in the UK until August 7 this year, 12 months after the UK formally ratified the convention. Only on August 20, 2014, it will become enforceable everywhere.
Interestingly, the vessel had been given a clean bill of health on MLC issues in Las Palmas by an inspector on behalf of Panama, which has already adopted MLC into law. “I find that quite amazing, considering the vessel was already in detention for MLC issues,” says Mr Thomson, who is surveyor in charge, Maritime & Coastguard Agency (MCA) on the Tyne.
Bad news
He describes the Donald Duckling saga as ‘of nightmarish proportions all round’. Owned by the TMT Group of Taiwan, chartered by European Metal Recycling, flagged in Panama, classed by Japan’s ClassNK, and with a crew of 18 from Romania, India and the Philippines, it sounds like the classic ‘bad news’ shipping story we have all heard before.
In fact, says Mr Thomson, 96% of the requirements of MLC were previously covered in separate ILO conventions; until August 7 the UK continues to inspect for ILO compliance in this way, but it can’t actually record deficiencies under MLC.
The Donald Duckling developed into a stalemate; TMT had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, reportedly owing $800m, and there was little response from Panama, says Mr Thomson.
Technicalities about the precise definition of abandonment left the crew in limbo.
The Port of Tyne provided a lay-by berth and power supplies and worked with the Mission to Seafarers and other local charities which were providing food and clean drinking water for the crew.
Chain of responsibility
“This is exactly what the MLC was supposed to combat – it lays out who is responsible for what, and the shipowner is responsible for paying crew wages, meeting contractual obligations, providing adequate accommodation, light, heating, food and water. Clearly if you have not got fuel for your engines, you can’t run the engines, therefore there is no heating or lighting,” says Mr Thomson.
Representatives of the ITF (International Transport Workers’ Federation) also insisted that the vessel was abandoned but, at the eleventh hour, some (not all) of the crews’ owed wages arrived. “That meant one of the abandonment criteria under ILO was not ticked and technically the vessel wasn’t abandoned. That definition is going to change under MLC.”
Under MLC provisions, the vessel would be been defined as abandoned and it would then fall to the flag state – in this case Panama – to deal with repatriation of the crew. However, after two-and-a-half months no action had been taken.
DFDS Seaways offered the Romanian crew a free ferry crossing to Amsterdam, from where they made their way home. Eventually, the remaining crew were repatriated by the ITF, paying out of its funds.
Dead space
As Alan Thomson puts it, the last thing a port wants is a ‘dead ship’ on its hands. At the time of writing, the vessel was still in port. A spokeswoman for the Port of Tyne said: “The cargo vessel Donald Duckling remains detained by the MCA – and the ship is currently under arrest by its charterers, EMR. The ship is unmanned and to minimise the impact on commercial shipping and maintain the vessel’s security, it is berthed at the former McNulty Offshore Quay at South Shields.”
Despite all of this and despite his own obvious frustration over the situation, Mr Thomson says: “MLC is an excellent piece of legislation which will greatly help seafarers in the future. We are all feeling our way and it is still in its infancy.”
What’s clear is that had MLC already been law in the UK, the Donald Duckling situation could have been dealt with more decisively – for example, by the UK forcing the issue by repatriating the crew and then sending the bill to Panama.
Because of the year’s space between ratification and entry into force, there are some significant port states for whom MLC is not yet in force, says the ITF. “We are looking forward to the concentrated inspection regimes planned for later this year and next year by Paris MoU [Memorandum of Understanding on Port State Control] and Tokyo MoU,” says Jon Whitlow, secretary of the ITF seafarers’ section.
“We are constantly monitoring how the MLC is working and so far it’s living up to expectations,” he says. “It is proving a valuable tool for safeguarding seafarers’ rights, conditions and right to be paid. We are continuing to strive to get it in use as widely as possible, and are pushing for it to be ratified and effectively implemented by as many countries as possible.”
Crew counts
The ITF says the main issues for MLC detention so far are non-payment of wages for several months, inadequate provisioning and refusal to repatriate given breach of contract by the owner.
“All of these are serious issues, not matters of paperwork. There have not been obvious improvements yet but realistically it is still early for such a change to be visible,” says Mr Whitlow. “We don’t expect it to happen overnight. On the positive side, flag states are at least replying to complaints – even if they don’t take proper action, and port states are detaining on occasion. We continue to be frustrated over Panama’s refusal to take responsibility for vessels flying its flag.”
Pat Dolby, inspection operations manager at the MCA, says: “Generally, as has always been the case, if the ship is substandard in other areas, it will also be substandard in areas of crew health and welfare.”
The MLC is basically bringing together all maritime ILO conventions under one ‘super’ convention, he says. “We have always looked at ILO issues during PSC inspections under existing ILO conventions.
“The main change is that now there is an actual statutory certificate issued for MLC compliance – previously no ILO certification was issued – and there are more areas for detention of a ship for non-compliance, notably non-payment of wages, employment agreements and crew accommodation.”
FROM USI LIVE:
31 March 2014

(L to R): Reg McAlister, Joe Fleetwood, Garry Parsloe (MUNZ national president), Paddy Crumlin, Craig Tuck (Slave Free Seas), Liz Blackshaw (ITF fisheries)
International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) president Paddy Crumlin has met with key stakeholders in Auckland, New Zealand, about the ongoing campaign to secure NZD30 million in unpaid wages for fishers in the region.
The ITF has contributed to Slave Free Seas’ campaign to claim outstanding wages in the vicinity of NZD30 million through the New Zealand courts.
Mr Crumlin met with senior union representatives from Australia, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea, the Slave Free Seas advocacy group and the Merchant Service Guild as part of the Regional Maritime Federation meeting.
The Regional Maritime Federation brings together maritime unions from Australia, New Zealand and PNG to try to build trade union capacity in the region.
Mr Crumlin, who is also Maritime Union of Australia national secretary, said it was imperative that fisheries workers get better wages and conditions in an industry in which 24,000 people die across the world each year.
“Slave Free Seas acts on behalf of fishers where they have no representation and legal redress,” Mr Crumlin said.
“We commend the initiative of Slave Free Seas as we try to break apart the industrial model upon which commercial fishing is built because it is akin to modern day slavery.”
Maritime Union of New Zealand National Secretary Joe Fleetwood said the New Zealand Parliament needed to pass its fishing slavery laws as a matter of urgency.
“The bill has now been pushed number 27 on the parliamentary bills list, placing it in real danger of not being addressed before the upcoming national election,” Mr Fleetwood said.
“This is outrageous. The New Zealand Government is missing in action when it comes to protecting the rights and welfare of fishers in our region.”
It is almost two years since the government concluded a ministerial Inquiry into the use of foreign charter vessels after national and international accusations of slave labour in New Zealand waters.
The legislation to implement the recommendations, including a requirement that all vessels be New Zealand flagged by 2016, is yet to be passed.
New Zealand’s use of cheap labour on fishing boats was scathingly labelled ‘21st Century slavery’ in a US State Department report released in mid-2012.
It cited conditions of forced labour, including debt bondage, imposition of significant debts, physical violence, mental abuse and excessive hours of work aboard vessels in New Zealand waters.
The issue was mentioned more recently in the Global Slavery Index and will continue to be an embarrassing topic of discussion until the Government gets its act together and passes the necessary law.
Slave Free Seas is a team of the world’s foremost experts on modern slavery, including international lawyers specialising in human rights and maritime law, world-leading academics, and advocates from the private sector.
While still involved with the legislative changes in the New Zealand fishing industry, the group’s focus is on the development of a global legal toolbox to effectively end labour exploitation and abuse wherever it occurs in the fishing industry across the globe.
FROM ASLEF JOURNAL:
***Women workers are fighting back
THIS ARTICLE CAN BE SEEN ON PAGE 10 AT http://www.aslef.org.uk/files/140263/FileName/AprilJournal.pdf
FROM DADDER:
***Uluslararası Emekçi Kadınlar Günü |
![]() Çünkü Katar Havayolları’nda çalışan kadın işçilerin çalışma koşulları oldukça kötü. Kadınlar evlenmek için öncelikle işverenden izin almak zorunda kalıyorlar. Hamile işçiler işten atılıyor. Hatta sokakta erkeklerle birlikte görülmeleri bile işten çıkarılmalarına sebep olabiliyor.
Kampanya hakkında detaylı bilgiye bu linkten ulaşabilirsiniz.
FROM NEWS AUSTRALIA:
***International container ship in coal dump claims
![]() Cargo ship Blue Eternity may be under investigation. Source: Supplied
VICTORIA’S environment watchdog has been urged to investigate allegations an international container ship dumped coal residue into waters off Williamstown.
Opposition ports spokeswoman Natalie Hutchins told state parliament that she had water samples from the area that have a “strong presence of black particles which could be coal dust”.
Ms Hutchins said the ship, Blue Eternity, had been carrying out cleaning of hatches that had allegedly caused the pollution late in March.
“If these allegations are correct it is quite possible that upon the cleaning of this vessel within the inner anchorage line this residue would have washed up on either Williamstown or Altona foreshore,” she said.
“This is yet another foreign vessel flouting our laws and suspected of dumping contaminated waste off the shores of our beautiful beaches.”
The Herald Sun has attempted to contact ship owner Rev Maritime.
The International Transport Workers Federation assistant co-ordinator Matt Purcell has also raised the issue with authorities, and say representations have been made to the Victorian Environment Protection Authority.
“The actions of this ship owner are a deep concern for anyone who values the marine ecology of Melbourne and its close surrounds,” assistant co-ordinator Matt Purcell said.
“We expect immediate action to stop this activity.”
EPA spokeswoman Tanya O’Shea said the agency had no record of the incident being reported and it encouraged people to report incidents when they happened.
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