During the South East Asian Week of Action from 13-17 January
Dockers and Seafarers unions in Philippines, Singapore, Indonesia and Myanmar inspected a total of 34 merchant vessels flying flags of convenience (FOC), as ITF Unions concluded the South East Asian Week of Action from 13-17 January.
Inspectors/contacts and union activists targeted merchant vessels to check for on board crew conditions, employment contracts, safety and compliance of the Maritime Labour Convention which came into force in August 2013. Also under scan were ships without ITF acceptable agreements that stipulate decent and negotiated wages and ship board conditions for crew members.
In Philippines, ITF affiliated Unions AMOSUP & PSU along with the dockers Unions led the inspections during the week. ITF Inspectors targeted 11 ships at the Davao port in southern Philippines which handles major agricultural cargoes including bananas and links the region to Hong Kong, China, Singapore, Australia, Europe, the Middle East and the United States.
Unions are now following up with owner companies to prevail upon them to sign ITF approved agreements. During the inspections they also attended to individual crew grievances relating to sickness wages, crew having exceeded contract periods and not repatriated back home, etc.
In Singapore a total of 17 vessels were inspected during the week. Efforts are on to contact the ITF Union in beneficially owned countries to assist in covering the crew on board these vessels with regulated collective agreements. Inspection teams also visited Australian flagged Pacific Raider 4, a fishing vessel which lies abandoned since September 2013. Of the original 16 Indonesian and Vietnamese crew only 4 are left on board. Crew wages have not been paid since December 2012.
In Indonesia, action was subdued as adverse weather conditions with heavy flooding in Jakarta prevented access to the Tanjong Priok port. Only 6 vessels could be inspected.
Similarly in Thailand, in spite of preparations, due to political tensions in and around Bangkok, the week of action activities had to be abandoned at the last moment in consultation with the participating Unions.
Commenting on the action week programme, Sangam Tripathy, Assistant Regional Secretary, ITF Asia Pacific said, ”This week’s action helped identify many German owned vessels trading in the region without ITF approved agreements on board for the crew.
Some of these ships had never been inspected before. We hope to follow up with the concerned companies so that they sign up their vessels with ITF approved agreements regulating work and wage conditions”.
Source: ITF
