Government decision to reflag foreign fishing vessels welcomed

The Mar­itime Union has wel­comed the Gov­ern­men­t’s announce­ment that for­eign char­ter fish­ing ves­sels work­ing in New Zealand waters will have to be reflagged under the New Zealand flag.

Mar­itime Union of New Zealand Gen­er­al Sec­re­tary Joe Fleet­wood says this will mean that fish­ing ves­sels catch­ing New Zealand quo­ta will have to ful­ly com­ply with New Zealand employ­ment, health and safe­ty, and labour laws, once the pol­i­cy comes into force.

Mr Fleet­wood says the moves can’t come soon enough, and the four year tran­si­tion peri­od announced was over­ly gen­er­ous.

He says he hopes that no exemp­tions will be giv­en at the end of the four year peri­od to any for­eign flagged ves­sels.

“Giv­en the string of fish­ery breach­es, labour abus­es and harm to crew mem­bers expe­ri­enced in recent years, we must ensure that the indus­try is policed over the tran­si­tion peri­od.”

The Mar­itime Union has spent many years call­ing for stronger reg­u­la­tion of the fish­ing indus­try, and through its affil­i­a­tion to the Inter­na­tion­al Trans­port Work­ers Fed­er­a­tion (ITF) has assist­ed many for­eign crew mem­bers in dis­tress who have been vic­tims of uneth­i­cal and some­times ille­gal prac­tices.

The sit­u­a­tion had now got to the point where New Zealand’s rep­u­ta­tion was in jeop­ardy with some of our biggest trad­ing part­ners, includ­ing the Unit­ed States.

Mr Fleet­wood says the Mar­itime Union would also like to see some spe­cif­ic mea­sures to give young New Zealand work­ers an oppor­tu­ni­ty to work in our fish­ing indus­try.