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.