Plea for help from fishing vessel “named and shamed” in global abuse report

Burmese crew mem­bers aboard the fish­ing ves­sel “Sky 75” in the Port of Timaru have approached uni­ons with a plea for help, a day after their ves­sel was “named and shamed” in an inter­na­tion­al report.

The fish­ing ves­sel “Sky 75” was fea­tured as a spe­cif­ic example of crew abuse in an inter­na­tion­al report from the Inter­na­tion­al Trans­port Work­ers’ Fed­er­a­tion (ITF) that was presen­ted to a United Nations meet­ing on mari­time law that opened in New York yes­ter­day.

New Zea­l­and ITF co-ordin­at­or Kathy Whelan says the “Sky 75” is a repeat offend­er, and the ves­sel had already come to the atten­tion of the ITF when 10 Indone­sian crew left the Korean registered fish­ing ves­sel ‘Sky 75’ in the Port of Nel­son in Septem­ber 2005.

“We find it amaz­ing that after all the pub­li­city and all the prom­ises of action after that incid­ent, the same ves­sel has turned up with sim­il­ar prob­lems.”

She says a let­ter from crew mem­bers asked for help with their con­di­tions of employ­ment.

Crew say they are owed two months wages and they have been work­ing on aver­age 20 hours a day, when their agree­ment spe­cifies 8 hours per day, and no over­time money had been received.

The let­ter from the Burmese crew says that the Korean officers aboard the “Sky 75” had threatened abuse against the crew and ordered them to work by kick­ing them with their boots and hit­ting with sticks.

The cost of safety and work­ing equip­ment was deduc­ted from their salar­ies, and meals were insuf­fi­cient and irreg­u­lar.

The “Sky 75” is oper­ated by the New Zea­l­and com­pany Pos­eidon, based in Hamilton.

The crew have also asked the Port Author­ity to look at con­cerns they have about the sea­wor­thi­ness of the ves­sel.

Ms Whelan says the ITF will be invest­ig­at­ing the prob­lems onboard the ves­sel and have asked for a Depart­ment of Labour inspec­tion.

She says that Third World con­di­tions are becom­ing the norm in parts of the New Zea­l­and fish­ing industry, with the industry unwill­ing or unable to fix the prob­lems.

“The answer lies in prop­er reg­u­la­tion of the industry and ser­i­ous enforce­ment of the law, not in nego­ti­at­ing deals with rogue ele­ments in the fish­ing industry.”

She says the Mari­time Uni­on has approached the Depart­ment of Labour to gain inform­a­tion on the “Sky 75” under the Offi­cial Inform­a­tion Act.