Global daily news 12.04.2014

Posted onAuthoradmin

***ILO Backs Protection for Abandoned Seafarers


The International Labor Organization voted to support amending an international labor convention [http://www.ilo.org/global/about-the-ilo/newsroom/news/WCMS_240992/lang–en/index.htm?shared_from=media-mail] by requiring shipowners to provide financial security to compensate seafarers abandoned at ports away from their native countries.
Representatives of seafarers, shipowners and governments approved the amendments to the 2006 Maritime Labor Convention without opposition at a Geneva meeting of the ILO. The amendments will be sent to the organization’s International Labor Convention for approval in May.
“The adoption of the Maritime Labor Convention in 2006 was an historical milestone that heralded a new era in the maritime sector,” said ILO Director-General Guy Ryder. “This latest step, building on international tripartite cooperation, is a very significant and inspiring example for other economic sectors.”
“When they come into force, these measures will ensure the welfare of the world’s seafarers and their families if the seafarers are abandoned, or if death or long-term disability occurs as the result of occupational injury, illness or hazard,” he said.
The amendments were developed over nearly a decade by a joint working group established by the ILO and the International Maritime Organization in 1998. They establish mandatory requirements that shipowners have financial security to cover abandonment, as well as death or long-term disability of seafarers due to occupational injury and hazard.
Under the new provisions, ships will be required to carry certificates or other documents to establish that financial security exists to protect seafarers working on board. Failure to provide this protection may mean that a ship can be detained in a port.
The 2006 ILO Maritime Labor Convention came into force on Aug. 20, 2013. Fifty-seven ILO member states representing more than 80 percent of the world’s global shipping tonnage have ratified the Convention. As of March, the ILO’s Abandonment of Seafarers Database listed 159 abandoned merchant ships, some dating back to 2006 and still unresolved.
The International Transport Workers Federation praised the action. “Abandonment is a particularly dark stain on the industry, and the new amendments are real and concrete relief for seafarers facing that dire predicament,” ITF President Paddy Crumlin said.




FROM MALTA TODAY:


***Company ordered to pay abandoned crew’s salaries

Owners of Labybug Corporation ordered to pay more than €200,000 in salaries and repatriation expenses to the crew of a ship abandoned in Maltese territorial waters

Chris Mangion
14 April 2014, 2:31pm


1

1


The owners of Panama registered vessel, ‘B Ladybug’ were today ordered by court to pay the amount of €205,694 in back dated salaries, bonuses and allowances to the captain, officers and crew of same ship.

The crew was made of captain Mirande Fabian Gerard, Arnold Ponce Payas, Danilo Malayan Veltran, Archie Barlizo Adorable, Anantha Paleswara Behera, Emmanuel Bajado Regalado, John Ventura Binas, Antonio Jr. G. Esporlas, Ernesto Jr. A Daludado, Conrado M. De Los Reves, Antonio Roldan Dacua, Kernel Parada Pascua, Nire Valmera, Ronaldo Camara Aloc, Roman M. Cristobal, Franco Ranin Gudez, llluminado S. Deiparine, Octavio Arjona Atok, Roel Panesa, Mark John P. Bayot, Jonathan M. Francisco and Gil Almonte Sales.

Master Mariner and Captain of the vessel, Fabian Mirande explained how he and 21 other crew members, including officers were employed as crew on vessel B Ladybug. The 232 metre long vessel was built in 2011 and was used to transport vehicles. However the vessel owners had informed the crew that the company was not in a position to pay their wages.

The crew communicated their position to the International Transport Workers’ Federation, who filed a civil suit on their behalf, requesting the payment of salaries backdated from May 2013 and the expenses to repatriate the crew.

Taking the witness stand, the Federation’s representative in Malta, Paul Falzon told the court he was informed that Labybug Corporation was in a dire financial state and was not in a position to pay salaries. The vessel’s sister ships ‘A Labybug’, and ‘D Ladybug’ were all in Maltese territorial waters and the salaries of their crews were also not paid.

Furthermore the owners had stopped communication with the federation, refused to take calls and had abandoned the crew and vessels. ladybug Corporation had indeed stopped supplying bunkering of supplies to the vessel – including water and food for the crew.

The Court noted that additional expenses were incurred in order to rent a small vessel to deliver the summons onboard the ship. “Such expenses shall be incurred by the corporation”, the court ruled.

Madame Justice Jacqueline Padovani Grima decreed that no representative of Corporation attended the sitting, and neither was any evidence exhibited to counter the claim filed by the crew.  Judge Padovani Grima ordered Ladybug Corporation to pay the 22-strong crew, the sum of €205,694, in lieu of salaries and repatriation expenses.





FROM THE LIVERPOOL ECHO:


***Charities unite to create new £750,000 seafarers centre in Waterloo
By Crosby Herald
411 words
11 April 2014
19:39

liverpoolecho.co.uk

LIVEONL
English
© 2014 Trinity Mirror
A NEW ecumenical seafarers centre is opening in Waterloo as part of a £750,000 venture.
A NEW ecumenical seafarers centre is opening in Waterloo as part of a £750,000 venture.
The former Mersey Mission to Seafarers Centre in Crosby Road South, which closed last year, is being transformed into the Liverpool Seafarers Centre.
This is a new charity, run jointly by the Anglican Mersey Mission and the Catholic Apostleship of the Sea charities.
It is the first completely ecumenical seafarers centre in the country, which will be run by a joint committee from the Anglican and Catholic seafarers charities.
The centre is being refurbished and has a TV lounge, internet and phone facilities, a new bar, games room, a chapel and a library.
After eight years of talks, the Mersey Mission Centre and the Apostleship of the Sea Centre, known as the Stella Maris Centre, in Bootle, were closed.
With both offering similar services it was decided resources could be pooled by collaborating and setting up a merged facility.
The centre, which will open from 10am to 10pm, will provide facilities for seafarers from as far as Russia, Philippines, China and Ukraine, who are docked in Liverpool.
It will offer activities, refreshments and facilities to contact people back home.
John Wilson, chief executive of the Liverpool Seafarers Centre, said: “It is an exciting time and it’s an historic time in Liverpool that the two organisations have come together in full agreement to provide welfare services to seafarers and to split the cost equally.
“When seafarers come to port and the first thing they want to do is contact home.
“It’s a safe haven where they can come to relax.”
The Mersey Mission, Apostleship of the Sea and the International Transport Federation Seafarers Trust each funded £250,000 for the work to be carried out.
Operating costs will reach £160,000 a year, which the two charities will initially pay for but outside funding will eventually be sought.
An official opening will take place in October, attended by the Bishop of Liverpool, The Rt Rev James Jones and Archbishop of Liverpool, the Most Rev Patrick Kelly.
It will be staffed but volunteers are also being sought at the centre to welcome seafarers and help them use the facilities.
Anyone who would like to volunteer at the centre can call 0300 800 80 80.