Maritime Union comes to assistance of distressed crew on Lancelot V

For­eign crew aboard a detained ship in Taur­anga have received inter­im pay­ments totalling thou­sands of dol­lars after uni­ons inter­vened fol­low­ing sev­er­al months of ser­i­ous prob­lems.

The Greek owned and Panamani­an flagged bulk car­ri­er Lancelot V is under arrest at the Port of Taur­anga, where the Inter­na­tion­al Trans­port Work­ers’ Fed­er­a­tion has been work­ing with its loc­al affil­i­ate, the Mari­time Uni­on of New Zea­l­and, on behalf of crew.

Mari­time Uni­on offi­cials first vis­ited the ves­sel at the Ports of Auck­land in May.

They fol­lowed up com­plaints that crew mem­bers had not been repat­ri­ated to their home coun­tries after their con­tracts had expired, as well as prob­lems with pay, which was well below ILO min­im­um stand­ards.

A Mari­time New Zea­l­and (gov­ern­ment agency) ship inspec­tion in Auck­land revealed defects to sev­er­al cranes.  The ship then sailed to Taur­anga where she was arres­ted by her char­ter­ers for breach of the charter­party.  She was also detained by Mari­time New Zea­l­and when her annu­al clas­si­fic­a­tion soci­ety cer­ti­fic­ates expired.

Crew visas expired dur­ing this time, for­cing them to remain on board as vir­tu­al pris­on­ers until Immig­ra­tion New Zea­l­and issued tem­por­ary visas.

Wages to the crew had stopped about two months pre­vi­ously.

Mari­time Uni­on offi­cials from Taur­anga act­ing on behalf of the ITF vis­ited the ves­sel and sup­por­ted crew mem­bers dur­ing this time.

Extens­ive rep­res­ent­a­tion was made to the embassies of the Rus­si­an, Ukrain­i­an and Filipino crew mem­bers with little res­ult.

Fol­low­ing a hear­ing in the High Court last week, US$23,000 in inter­im wages was obtained to be dis­trib­uted amongst the crew for the time being.

The ITF is seek­ing the prompt repat­ri­ation of all crew mem­bers to their home coun­tries once the remain­ing back pay claims, estim­ated to be over US$100,000, have been resolved and for the crew to be paid at ITF rates by the char­ter­er in the mean­time.

ITF New Zea­l­and inspect­or Gra­hame McLar­en says the prob­lems with the ship are a res­ult of the dereg­u­lated ship­ping industry where “flag of con­veni­ence” ship­ping has under­mined safety and stand­ards.

“These ships of shame are com­ing into New Zea­l­and ports. They are rip­ping off their crews and cre­at­ing a health and safety haz­ard in ports and on the New Zea­l­and coast.”