The ITF (International Transport Workers’ Federation) will push ICAO (the International Civil Aviation Organization) in Canada today for action on flagrant abuses of aviation workers’ labour rights by airlines based in Qatar and the UAE.
The ITF states that Emirates, Qatar Airways and Etihad Airways are among the fastest growing airlines in the world. They employ more than 70,000 pilots, cabin crew and ground staff between them. More than 90 percent of their employees are non-UAE/Qatari nationals – all of whom have to rely on obtaining temporary work visas under a sponsorship programme. Although these foreign workers are vital to the success of the airlines, they do not enjoy the basic labour rights (including freedom of association and the right to collective bargaining) which apply in their home countries and in virtually all the nations whose airlines compete with Emirates, Etihad and Qatar Airways.
FROM CARGO FORWARDER:
***Unions Accuse ME Carriers of Massive Labor Abuses
The International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) together with the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) demand ICAO to stop abuses of labor rights by Gulf carriers. These are alarmingly violated by some Arabian airlines, the ITF claims.
Created: Sep 24, 2013 10:42 AM
Source: ITF
ITF boss Paddy Crumlin is advocating to confront out-of-control capitalism.
In a press release the ITF speaks of “flagrant abuses of aviation workers’ labor rights by airlines based in Qatar and the UAE.” The union point out that Qatar Airways Etihad and Emirates are among the fastest growing carriers in the world. Of their estimated 70,000 cockpit and cabin crews together with their ground staff more than 90 percent are foreigners. All of these nun UAE/Qatari nationals have to rely on obtaining temporary work visas under a special sponsorship program. Despite their importance for the carrier’s market success, they do not enjoy the basic labor rights granted in most of their home countries, including freedom of association and the right to collective bargaining, reads the release.
Especially Qatar Airways has obviously long been a thorn in the side of the unions. The ITF quotes a passage standing in a standard hiring contract for female airline workers. According to the ITF it reads: “You are required to obtain prior permission from the company, in case you wish to change your marital status and get married.” And: “The employee shall notify the employer in case of pregnancy from the date of her knowledge of its occurrence. The employer shall have the right to terminate the contract of employment from the date of notification of the pregnancy. Failure of employee to notify the employer or the concealment of the occurrence shall be considered a breach of contract.”
As reaction, ITF President Paddy Crumlin delivered a harsh comment: “Earlier this year the ITF and ITUC spearheaded the successful resistance to Qatar’s bid to have ICAO moved to Doha*. The same democratic deficit that torpedoed that ridiculous bid is still in place in these airlines. At the time Qatar Airways’ CEO even went on record as saying: ‘If you did not have unions you wouldn’t have this jobless problem in the Western world’. The fact is that these companies are making a fortune from the efforts of hardworking staff that, undefended, can be discharged and deported on a whim.”
ITUC General Secretary Sharan Burrow added: “Nations and companies cannot continue to turn a blind eye to abuses of workers in Qatar. International pressure is growing on migrant rights. The spotlight is on companies in Qatar to take responsibility for workers’ rights and follow global rules.”
This proposal is one of seven working papers the ITF will present during the ICAO assembly held in Montreal from 24 September to 4 October.
Author: Heiner Siegmund
FROM LLOYD’S LIST:
***IMTC blames woes on V.Ships contract cancellation
- Tuesday 24 September 2013, 15:18
- by David Osler
- Back to Lloyd’s List Containers
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IMTC blames woes on V.Ships contract cancellation
But Morocco’s biggest shipowner insists company is not bust
MOROCCO’S largest shipping company International Maritime Transport Corporation has denied reports that it has gone bankrupt, and has pledged to pay salaries outstanding to around 40 of its seafarers stranded off the German coast for several months.
In an exclusive interview with Lloyd’s List, owner Mohammed Karia blamed its difficulties on the decision of V.Ships to terminate a contract for the commercial and technical management of four ice class boxships at short notice.
For its part, the world’s largest shipmanager admits to ending the contracts, but claims that IMTC was in substantial arrears and had not stuck to the provisions of a rescheduling programme agreed in 2012.
V.Ships also countered that ultimately it had no choice in the matter, as IMTC was unable to satisfy V.Ships that it had adequate insurance cover in place.
Three of the four ships – part of IMTC’s overall fleet of 12 – have been at anchor off the Frisian holiday island of Wangerooge since the expiry of a charter with Maersk at the end of June.
Maersk Vancouver, Maersk Valletta and Maersk Vigo (all 1,683 teu and built 2002) have been dependent on donated food, water and lubes, with the plight of the crew generating considerable mainstream media coverage in Germany, some of which describes the owner as bankrupt. The fourth in the series, Maersk Venice, is at a shipyard in Poland.
Maersk Vancouver, Maersk Valletta and Maersk Vigo have been arrested by the International Transport Workers’ Federation on behalf of the seafarers on board.
Meanwhile, flag state Gibraltar is complying with obligations under the Maritime Labour Convention to repatriate the seafarers, who are mostly Filipino, Russian and Ukrainian nationals. At the time of writing, they were due to fly home within 48 hours.
As the names imply, the three ships had been on charter to Danish shipping giant Maersk until June, at which point their charterparties expired.
IMTC also used to provide feeder services for Maersk in the western Mediterranean, although it has recently lost that contract after a competitive tender, according to Mr Karia.
On Mr Karia’s account, a number of V.Ships representatives discussed the IMTC contract with him at his offices in Casablanca, and the two sides were able to come to terms. But matters came to a head when IMTC was unable to find summer employment for its ice class quartet.
“That guy [a V.Ships representative] on July 27, with short notice from one day to the next, said that he was stopping [the management contract],” said Mr Karia.
“In August, I had not time to appoint another manager. He did not want to permit another manager to board the vessel and he said he would not pay the salary.
“But we paid until the end of June, we paid July normally. But when we received notice of termination, I stopped paying him. Now he is claiming some money.
“We went to court on September 19. We agreed to pay the crew for everything and I have 14 days to that. All the crew will be paid.”
There have been reports that the ships have been subjected to forced sale, with IMTC accepting in the region of $50m en bloc for ships it paid $30m each for in 2007.
Mr Karia denied that this is the case, although he said that negotiations concerning a sale are currently underway with a number of parties and may reach a conclusion in the next week or so.
He also denied suggestions that IMTC was bankrupt, although he did admit that it had been stretched by the protracted shipping downturn.
“Before the crisis, we would buy a vessel every 18 months. Now it is more difficult for owners,” he remarked. “We have other trades, we have other lines. We are looking to bulk carriers to diversify our company, and to passengers.”
A spokesman for V.Ships said that IMTC had paid management fees reasonably promptly until August last year, at which point a meeting was held and a rescheduling agreement signed.
A payment in line with the document was made in September 2012, but the problems kicked off again in October and November. The contracts were terminated from April 30 and July 29.
“At that time, total crew and supplier outstandings were $1.7m, of which the crew content was just over $460,000,” he said. “It’s not for us to say what the problems of the owner were, but there were constant excuses.
“The real reason they were terminated is that the owner could not produce proof of hull and machinery insurance.
“V.Ships couldn’t take the ships to sea, regardless of any outstandings, even if V.Ships had been generous enough to want to continue.”
The representative also categorically denied that any arbitration had been launched in London.
Lloyd’s List asked Mr Karia to respond to V.Ships’ claims concerning his hull and machinery cover arrangements, but had not received a reply at the time of publication.
***Swanland flag breached own guidelines
- Tuesday 24 September 2013, 10:41
- by David Osler
- Back to Lloyd’s List Asia
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Since 2002, 248 general cargoships have foundered worldwide, killing more than 800 seafarers.
Vessel not inspected prior to provisional registration, Cook Islands admits
MARITIME Cook Islands was in breach of its own procedures when it registered a 34-year-old general cargoship that sank, killing six people, having failed to conduct a survey prior to provisional registration, its chief executive has confirmed to Lloyd’s List.
Glenn Armstrong, who runs the flag administration for the Pacific island chain, also admitted that Swanland effectively functioned as a small bulk carrier but, because it was classed as a general cargoship, it avoided an enhanced survey that could have prevented the fatal casualty.
The incident, recently the subject of a Marine Accident Branch Investigation, has reopened controversy over the safety of general cargoships, which have one of the worst casualty records of any vessel type.
It also turns a spotlight on the role of open registers and of the recognised organisations they appoint to carry out inspections on their behalf.
In a series of email communications with Lloyd’s List, Mr Armstrong revealed that MCI had suspended registration of any vessel classified by the International Naval Surveys Bureau, the non-International Association of Classification Societies technical body that classed Swanland.
Furthermore, MCI is carrying out an audit of INSB for imminent publication.
In summary, MAIB found that Swanland — which went down off the Llyn Peninsula, just outside UK territorial waters, in 2011 — had not been properly maintained and its longitudinal strength was severely weakened by corrosion and wastage.
Its cargo of limestone had been loaded as a single pile within the central section of the hold, placing significant stress in the midships section, exacerbated by rough seas of similar wavelength to the vessel, causing it to suffer structural failure and to sink within 17 minutes.
Second officer Roman Savin, 27, and able seaman Vitaly Karpenko, 48, were airlifted to safety. The body of Leonid Safonov, 50, was recovered from the sea shortly afterwards.
The bodies of master Yury Shmelev, 44, chief engineer Genadiy Meshkov, 52, second engineer Mikhail Starchevoy, 60, able seaman Sergey Kharchenko, 51, and cook Oleg Andriets, 49, were never recovered.
As the MAIB document points out, this case was hardly a one-off.
Swanland is one of 248 general cargoships known to have foundered worldwide since 2002, killing more than 800 seafarers. Of these ships, 226 were 15 years old or more and 139 were 27 years or older.
“Concerns surrounding the safety and high loss rates of similar general cargoships have been repeatedly raised at the International Maritime Organization. However, progress to address the problems appears to have been slow,” the MAIB notes.
“It is hoped that the loss of Swanland and her six crew will be a catalyst for the work already being undertaken by the International Maritime Organization to tackle the global issue of general cargoship safety.”
But although the primary causes of the casualty lie elsewhere, the MAIB was also critical of MCI and INSB.
Thus it talks in terms of the “poor quality of survey and audit [and] lack of oversight of the classification society by the flag state”.
Asked whether he accepted the criticism as fair, Mr Armstrong did not answer directly, answering: “We have strengthened and continue to strengthen our oversight programme for all ROs that we authorise as part of our quality-improvement programme and our voluntary IMO member state audit scheme preparation.”
MCI had formal agreements with nearly all IACS member classification societies, as well as INSB.
However, it did not conduct any audits of these societies and based its approval of INSB as an RO on an audit conducted by the Panama Maritime Authority in March 2008.
Although this audit recommended the continued recognition of INSB as an RO for the Panamanian flag, it did raise four major and four minor non-conformities.
“At the time of the accident, MCI was unable to provide any record of these nonconformities having been closed out,” the MAIB report claimed.
“MCI was not aware of any other flag state audits of INSB conducted between 2008 and 2011.”
The owner of Swanland transferred the vessel from Lloyd’s Register to INSB when it was reflagged from Barbados to MCI in 2009, mainly because the latter is about 30% cheaper, MAIB alleged.
But although INSB is less expensive than some of its rivals, MAIB describes intermediate and annual surveys after the transfer as lacking rigour in comparison to IACS members.
Addressing these issues, Mr Armstrong said: “We entered into agreements with a number of ROs in 2007. INSB was one of them.
“They presented their credentials to us, which we reviewed in detail and accepted. They have a long history and a reasonable track record, being the 16th-best performing RO on the Paris MoU RO list.
“The registry’s decision to authorise INSB was not driven by budgetary considerations.”
MCI, pejoratively described by the International Transport Workers’ Federation as a flag of convenience, has recorded uneven performance metrics.
Its standing in the 2012 edition of International Chamber of Shipping and International Shipping Federation league table can be described as mixed.
It is, for instance, on the Tokyo Memorandum white list. On the other hand, it is towards the bottom of the Paris MoU grey list and its vessels are specifically targeted by the US Coast Guard.
There were 160 port state control inspections of Cook Islands vessels in the Paris memorandum area between 2009- 2011, leading to 14 detentions. MCI deleted five ships that had been subject to repeated detentions.
“We are on the Paris MoU grey list and working hard to improve our position,” said Mr Armstrong.
“When the new USCG target list is published, Cook Islands will no longer be on that list and this signifies a major step forward and progress by the registry.”
The Cook Islands consists of 15 small islands scattered over some 2m sq km of the Pacific Ocean, with a population of approximately 18,000.
MCI is a commercial organisation with a franchise from the Cook Islands Ministry of Transport, using the internet to issue certificates.
It is, according to its website, “building a world class open register” and its “goal is to become the flag of choice for quality classed tonnage and superyachts”.
As at July 2012, MCI had 56 Solas vessels on its books, most of which were general cargoships.
The total tonnage of the Solas vessels was 595,138 gt and their average age was close to 30 years.
MCI has, of course, promised to raise its game. Among the commitments it has made after the Swanland report, it has said it will review vetting procedures and requirements for flag state inspections for older ships, particularly those not in IACS class prior to registration.
As mentioned above, it is conducting an audit of INSB.
However, contrary to information given in the MAIB report, it will not now be establishing a technical office in Europe and plans instead to “significantly enhance” its technical capabilities at its office in Rarotonga.
“We have appointed a new technical manager who is tasked with strengthening our regulatory and technical control and implementing new systems through all regional offices,” said Mr Armstrong.
Asked when maritime stakeholders should have any confidence in the integrity of MCI after the loss of Swanland, he said: “Cook Islands takes its flag state responsibilities very seriously.
“The tragic casualty has reinforced our commitment to continuously improve our systems and to work through the IMO in order to ensure that all measures are taken to ensure that lessons learned from this tragedy are implemented.”