The International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) has found a Flag-of-Convenience (FOC) vessel reportedly underpaying its crew members by exploiting them.
What happened?
The Bahamas-registered Flag-of-Convenience (FOC) vessel ‘Diana’ was inspected by International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) and found the company exploiting its crew members by underpaying them. The vessel is owned by an Australian company, Canadian Shipping Lines (CSL) Australia.
The crew members were comprised of Filipino seafarers who are effectively operating full time on the Australian coast.
According to the coastal trading rules introduced in 2012, the foreign crew members were supposed to be paid award rates as the vessel is working more than two domestic voyages in Australian waters. However, when the inspection was carried out on December 20, showed that seafarers are only receiving low FOC wages.
Foreign workers exploited:
Recently, CSL has increased the use of foreign seafarers in coastal trades replacing Australian crew, effectively undermining employment conditions and jobs on Australia’s coastal shipping routes.
ITF Australia Coordinator Dean Summers said: “Under Australian legislation all foreign workers must be paid award rates while operating in the local trade. ITF Australia, acting on a tip off, has today exposed abuse of Filipino seafarers working in Australia for CSL. The ITF has contacted the Fair Work Ombudsman (FWO) to investigate further but we are yet to receive a response”.
He further added, “These are vulnerable foreign workers used by an Australian company to replace Australian national seafarers working exclusively in the Australian trade. CSL Australia has so far refused to sign an industrial agreement guaranteeing international minimum standards on its fleet of deregulated FOC vessels, Acacia, Adelie and Diana. The ITF demands the government investigates these clear breaches of our trading laws immediately and prosecute the perpetrators”.
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Source: ITF Global
