Spotlight goes on abuse of overseas crews

The Mari­time Uni­on says the pub­lic­a­tion of a report on the exploit­a­tion of over­seas fish­ing crews in New Zea­l­and waters by the Sunday Star Times today has “lif­ted the lid” on what is going on in the industry.
Mari­time Uni­on Gen­er­al Sec­ret­ary Joe Fleet­wood says the uni­on has been advoc­at­ing for a com­plete clean up of the joint ven­ture fish­ing industry for years to pro­tect work­ers.
“It is good to see the New Zea­l­and media finally shin­ing the spot­light into some dark places.”
In recent years the joint ven­ture fish­ing industry had seen a string of sink­ings, drown­ings, indus­tri­al acci­dents, reports of viol­ence and abuse, health and safety viol­a­tions, ship jump­ings, appalling work con­di­tions and fail­ures to hon­our employ­ment and wage agree­ments.
Mr Fleet­wood says the Mari­time Uni­on wants a full audit of the industry, includ­ing the stand­ard of ves­sels and open­ing the wages books.
The use of employ­ment agents in the coun­tries of ori­gin for for­eign crews meant the worst prac­tices of Third World eco­nom­ies had become estab­lished in the New Zea­l­and eco­nomy.
“This situ­ation is what is known over­seas as social dump­ing, or the exploit­a­tion of cross-bor­der labour in a glob­al­ized eco­nomy.”
Mr Fleet­wood says just because fish­ing ves­sels were oper­at­ing off the New Zea­l­and coast, that did not give oper­at­ors a right to ignore New Zea­l­and stand­ards of employ­ment.
“The New Zea­l­and Gov­ern­ment has taken an inef­fect­ive approach, simply because there are big profits in it for the com­pan­ies.”
He says the over­seas fish­ing crews are not mem­bers of the Mari­time Uni­on but the uni­on would con­tin­ue to offer help if asked as the over­seas crews had no oth­er effect­ive rep­res­ent­a­tion.
Mr Fleet­wood says the Mari­time Uni­on and the Inter­na­tion­al Trans­port Work­ers Fed­er­a­tion (ITF) has assisted crew mem­bers on many occa­sions, organ­iz­ing repat­ri­ation of crew mem­bers and the pay­ment of out­stand­ing wages.
The Mari­time Uni­on of New Zea­l­and is affil­i­ated to the ITF, which is organ­iz­ing inter­na­tion­ally to improve con­di­tions for sea­farers and fish­ing crews.
Mr Fleet­wood says the long term answer is to employ New Zea­l­and work­ers on good wages and con­di­tions in the fish­ing industry, rather than allow­ing the worst prac­tices to con­tin­ue.
“New Zea­l­and work­ers have a right to jobs in their own fish­ing industry, espe­cially at a time of high unem­ploy­ment.”