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Crew wages scandal in Ireland prompts ITF intervention
1 December 2006
The ITF is pursuing a Russian company in an effort to secure some US$200,000, owed to the crew of one of its ferries operating between Ireland and the UK.
Crew members on board the Jamaican-flagged Merchant Bravery, which is chartered to Norfolklines, have not been paid for up to four months. ITF inspector Ken Fleming, based in Ireland, revealed that some of the crew – from Poland, Latvia and Russia – were on wages as low as 2 euros (US $2.64) per hour.
Fleming, who is in negotiations with the St Petersburg-based crewing agent Unimar, stated that four of the crew members would be repatriated at the cost of the employer. These crew members have alleged that the agent had threatened to withdraw their pay and to put them on a blacklist.
Commenting on the situation, Fleming said: “We are aiming to make good the monies owed to the rest of the 18 crew who remain on board and to ensure that there are sufficient checks and balances in place to make sure this doesn’t happen again. We also want to ensure that the ITF standard agreement is applied in full.”
A meeting with the crewing agent is scheduled for Tuesday.
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