Pink Panther Plan won’t solve ship jumping crews

The Mari­time Uni­on says a plan by the Depart­ment of Labour to track down ship jump­ing crews by employ­ing a private invest­ig­at­or is ques­tion­able at the least.

Mari­time Uni­on Gen­er­al Sec­ret­ary Tre­vor Han­son says that private invest­ig­at­ors may be in favour of the plan as it will ensure an end­less income stream for them in the future, but it would not solve ship jump­ing.

“The simple reas­on that crews of for­eign ves­sels are jump­ing ship is that they are under­paid, exploited and abused, and they are sourced over­seas from unreput­able agents who extract a major part of these unfor­tu­nate indi­vidu­als wages for them­selves.”

He says he can­’t under­stand why the Depart­ment of Labour does­n’t focus on the real issue rather than com­ing up with strange ideas.

“The Gov­ern­ment must ensure that before a for­eign ves­sel fishes on the New Zea­l­and coast it must com­ply to a set of reg­u­la­tions, and fail­ure by any for­eign
ves­sel to meet these con­di­tions simply means they don’t work on our coast.”

Mr Han­son says the release of a report earli­er this week into the treat­ment of over­seas crews in the New Zea­l­and fish­ing industry detailed shock­ing examples of work­er abuse, yet offi­cials seemed to be soft-ped­alling on the issue.

“Instead of bring­ing in snoops to har­ass work­ers, the Depart­ment of Labour should be doing its job by pro­tect­ing work­ers and put­ting inspect­ors on board fish­ing ves­sels.”

He says that the Mari­time Uni­on also reg­u­larly deals with or sees cases of mis­treat­ment of crews aboard for­eign ves­sels.

Mr Han­son says ship jump­ers also came off “Flag of Con­veni­ence” ships that car­ried the vast major­ity of cargo into, out of and domest­ic­ally on the New Zea­l­and coast.

He says the inter­na­tion­al ship­ping com­pan­ies oper­ate as price-fix­ing car­tels, caus­ing great harm to New Zea­l­and as an export­ing nation, as well as in some cases under­pay­ing their crew.

“The only long term solu­tion to our ship­ping crisis and crew jump­ing is a much great­er level of reg­u­la­tion and pub­lic con­trol of our ship­ping.”