Maritime Union demands Government action in offshore crewing dispute

Mari­time Uni­on of New Zea­l­and Wel­ling­ton Branch Sec­ret­ary Jim King says loc­al crews in the Tarana­ki off­shore industry have been pushed out by over­seas owned crew­ing agents OSM.

Five crew mem­bers who had been work­ing aboard the ‘Siem Amethyst’ had been expec­ted to accom­pany the ves­sel back to Asia yes­ter­day at the con­clu­sion of its charter.

Four of the crew were New Zeal­anders and one was a Mari­time Uni­on of Aus­tralia mem­ber covered by the same terms and con­di­tions of employ­ment.

The ‘Siem Amethyst’ had been work­ing in the Tarana­ki off­shore hav­ing been delivered by a crew from Asia earli­er this year.

How­ever, without the know­ledge of crew or Uni­on, crew­ing agency OSM had secretly kept the over­seas sea­farers in New Ply­mouth in accom­mod­a­tion for sev­er­al months and had now giv­en them the job of crew­ing the ves­sel on its return voy­age.

Mr King says the long stand­ing arrange­ment as per the employ­ment agree­ment was New Zea­l­and crews would do this work.

He says indus­tri­al and leg­al action was in the pipeline, and the dis­pute was already on the radar across the Tas­man with the Mari­time Uni­on of Aus­tralia whose mem­bers work for OSM in that jur­is­dic­tion.

“OSM is under­min­ing the New Zea­l­and mari­time industry, and have cre­ated a major prob­lem in the off­shore industry.”

Mr King says the dis­pute is not with over­seas crew mem­bers, but it is with an over­seas owned com­pany profit­ing off our nat­ur­al resources but attack­ing loc­al jobs and decent wages and con­di­tions.

He says the one motive is pure cor­por­ate greed, as OSM would bene­fit from pay­ing devel­op­ing world wages and con­di­tions.

“Our loc­al sea­farers pay taxes here, and what OSM is doing is break­ing the rules, deny­ing New Zea­l­and work­ers employ­ment while suck­ing money out of our nat­ur­al resources.”

Mr King says the Gov­ern­ment need to act now as the situ­ation was a clear breach of not just an employ­ment agree­ment but rules around over­seas work­ers in New Zea­l­and.

“The Gov­ern­ment need to step in to start rep­res­ent­ing our cit­izens, not let over­seas cor­por­ates suck more money out for their share­hold­ers.”

Mr King says the Mari­time Uni­on would be tak­ing a strong stand in defence of loc­al jobs against cor­por­ate greed.