Shipping companies, financiers and governments across the world urged to cut ties with sham union, ISU-Lanibra.
The International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) is sounding the alarm on a growing threat to the rights and welfare of seafarers worldwide.
A coordinated scheme between a fake union registered in Slovenia, calling itself the International Seafarers’ Union (ISU), and a for-profit company named Lanibra, has been exposed as a global scam. Together, they sell cut-rate sham labour agreements to rogue shipping companies looking to slash costs, at the direct expense of seafarers’ rights, safety, and wages. The sham operation is clearly in breach of international labour laws.
The ITF’s exposé, ‘A sham trade union undermining the maritime industry’, launched today, reveals a disturbing pattern of seafarer abandonment, wage theft and fundamental rights violations across multiple continents, all enabled by ISU-Lanibra’s exploitative business model.
“You’ve got the same people running a private company that acts as an agent to shipowners, offering services to sideline genuine trade unions – and a sham union signing substandard agreements. It’s collusion, pure and simple,” said Paddy Crumlin, President of the ITF.
“They’re not involved in any tripartite processes. They don’t engage with the International Labour Organization or the International Maritime Organization. They have no role in the hard, institutional work of lifting standards across this industry. They undermine real social dialogue, real safety, real accountability. And that puts seafarers' lives at risk.
“The legal, moral, ethical and social responsibility of a trade union is to actively work in the service of its members,” said Crumlin.
ISU does none of that. They’re profiteering off the flesh and labour of seafarers. We will expose them.”
A global pattern of abuse
- In the UK, two years after the notorious sacking scandal, it was revealed that replacement agency workers were paid less than half the legal minimum wage on P&O Ferries. Shockingly, these wages and conditions were detailed in documents, seen by the ITF, prepared for Philcrew and signed by ISU in 2023.
- In Brazil, the Eleen Eva was abandoned with unpaid crew. ISU-Lanibra never responded to seafarers onboard; the ITF stepped in and recovered $178,000 in stolen wages.
- In Australia, the Eleen Sofia was detained after ITF inspectors found the crew with no food onboard.
- In Thailand, a seafarer sought assistance from ISU-Lanibra for unpaid wages, but his plea for help was ignored – until the ITF intervened and secured payment.
A conflict of interest that breaches International Law
The leadership of ISU and Lanibra is indistinguishable. Founder Branko Krznaric, a former ITF employee, created both entities and even registered Lanibra using the ITF’s London address.
Krznaric’s daughter, Lana Krznaric, serves on the executive board of the ISU and as Lanibra’s Director of Legal and General Affairs, while his other daughter, Nina Krznaric, acts as Lanibra’s Director of Operations. This family-run network blurs any separation between the so-called “union” and employer agent.
“While ISU claims to represent seafarers, Lanibra openly markets itself to shipowners as a tool to “deal with ITF inspectors” and resolve “labour issues”,” said David Heindel, Chair of ITF’s Seafarers’ Section. “They even boast about its insider knowledge of ITF operations. The same people selling sham agreements to shipowners are advising shipowners how to avoid legitimate unions.
“This is more than unethical, it’s illegal. Under Article 2 of ILO Convention 98, employer interference in union affairs is strictly prohibited. Slovenian law also requires unions to be independent from employers. ISU-Lanibra clearly fails on both counts.”
In an email obtained by the ITF, Krznaric directly pitched Lanibra’s services to shipowners, writing: “Many companies which are cooperating with my company Lanibra decided to cooperate with the International Seafarers’ Union (ISU).”
This dual role, acting on behalf of both employers and workers, is a textbook example of a ‘company union’: a fraudulent outfit designed to undercut real unions and strip workers of their rights.
The ITF is preparing legal engagements to address these breaches and calls on authorities to investigate and deregister ISU-Lanibra for breaching both international and domestic labour laws.
Call to action
The ITF is demanding immediate action from:
- Shipowners and charterers: Terminate ISU-Lanibra agreements and adopt legitimate ITF agreements.
- Financial institutions and investors: Apply ESG and Human Rights Due Diligence to end support for ISU-Lanibra-affiliated operations.
- Governments: Investigate and regulate ISU-Lanibra activities under national and international labour standards.
The ITF is the global voice for 16.5 million transport workers, representing over 1 million seafarers through more than 200 unions worldwide.
In 2023 alone, it recovered over $57 million in stolen wages. Unlike ISU-Lanibra, the ITF maintains a 130-strong global inspectorate defending workers’ rights in over 110 ports worldwide.
“If you’re a shipowner, a charterer or an investor and you’re partnering with ISU-Lanibra, then you’re part of the problem,” warned Crumlin.
“You are complicit in wage theft, abandonment, and the degradation of employment standards of some of the most vulnerable workers in the world. There is no hiding behind ignorance. In today’s global supply chains, due diligence is not optional - it’s the law, it’s the expectation.”
For more information, visit: ISU Exposed
About the ITF: The International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) is a democratic, affiliate-led federation of transport workers’ unions recognised as the world’s leading transport authority. We fight passionately to improve working lives; connecting trade unions and workers’ networks from 147 countries to secure rights, equality and justice for their members. We are the voice of the 16.5 million women and men who move the world.
