Fishing industry report confirms worst fears

The Mar­itime Union says the release of a Gov­ern­ment report into employ­ment con­di­tions in the New Zealand fish­ing indus­try has con­firmed its worst fears.

Mar­itime Union Gen­er­al Sec­re­tary Trevor Han­son says the report has shone light on dark places in regard to the treat­ment of over­seas crews.

“We are dis­ap­point­ed at the Gov­ern­ment response to the report con­sid­er­ing what is actu­al­ly going on onboard some of these trawlers.”

Mr Han­son says it is obvi­ous that over­seas crews are being abused, exploit­ed and under­paid.

Inter­views with over­seas crew mem­bers by Gov­ern­ment labour inspec­tors reveal a chill­ing pic­ture of “sweat­ship” con­di­tions in a glob­al­ized mar­itime free mar­ket.

“The over­seas crews are being under­paid, hav­ing their mea­gre wages fur­ther stripped back by agents fees, and they are often beat­en and threat­ened into a state of fear and silence.”

Mr Han­son says the New Zealand Gov­ern­ment should imme­di­ate­ly act on the report to ensure that all work­ers in New Zealand waters can expect to be treat­ed with the basic stan­dards of a civ­i­lized soci­ety.

“The Mar­itime Union says the Gov­ern­ment should be enforc­ing the law, not con­sult­ing and nego­ti­at­ing with employ­ers who are break­ing the law.”

Mr Han­son says the report was com­plet­ed in Decem­ber 2004 and was sup­plied in advance to employ­ers, but Unions involved in the indus­try received the report today along with the media and pub­lic.

He says New Zealand crews are being forced out of the indus­try due to a Third World econ­o­my oper­at­ing off the New Zealand coast on fish­ing trawlers.

“The report states clear­ly there is no strong rea­son to doubt infor­ma­tion from Indone­sian crew mem­bers that the con­di­tions onboard amount to lit­tle more than sweat­shop ones.”

Mr Han­son says the fish­ing indus­try is a dis­as­ter zone, where the envi­ron­ment, local jobs and work­ers rights have been thrown in the trash to ensure a short-term, ugly and greed-dri­ven sys­tem ben­e­fit­ing a few.

The Mar­itime Union says the indus­try needs to be strict­ly reg­u­lat­ed to improve work­ing con­di­tions, ensure local jobs and pro­tect the long term sus­tain­abil­i­ty of fish stocks for future gen­er­a­tions.