TPC Wellington cleared for departure following negotiations

The Mar­itime Union of New Zealand says it has cleared the TPC Welling­ton to leave Mars­den Point after work­ing with crew mem­bers to arrange their repa­tri­a­tion.

Two crew mem­bers died on the log ship on Mon­day from what is thought to be asphyx­i­a­tion, but inves­ti­ga­tions into the acci­dent are ongo­ing.

Mar­itime Union Gen­er­al Sec­re­tary Joe Fleet­wood says the pri­or­i­ty has been to ensure the wel­fare of remain­ing crew mem­bers.

He says an agree­ment has been reached between the com­pa­ny and the crew with the assis­tance of the ITF and Mar­itime Union.

The Burmese crew mem­bers would return with the ves­sel to Korea where the com­pa­ny would release them from their con­tract.

The crew mem­bers would be paid wages owing, repa­tri­a­tion costs and a bonus.

Under the agree­ment they would be able to refuse to car­ry out work they felt was unsafe.

The Mar­itime Union is affil­i­at­ed to the Inter­na­tion­al Trans­port Work­ers Fed­er­a­tion (ITF), which rep­re­sents sea­far­ers and mar­itime work­ers around the world.

ITF New Zealand Inspec­tor Gra­hame McLaren arrived at the ves­sel on Tues­day after­noon and had been work­ing with crew since that time.