For day to day activities, thanks to the tireless activities of ITF Inspectors and maritime affiliates around the world, the ITF successfully recovers millions of dollars in back pay every year and saved numerous seafarers from despair. It is not an exaggeration to say that a week does not pass without hearing about the ITF in maritime press these days. Just last week we organised a FOC Campaign Week of Action in the Asia/Pacific region. Thousands of seafarers and dock workers were mobilised in the Week of Action and they inspected wages and working conditions of FOC ships. Another 118 ships are now covered by ITF Acceptable agreements, covering well over 2,200 seafarers.
We discovered, for example, a Bahamas registered FOC ship, M/V Star Glory, stranded for three months in Tanjung Priok, Indonesia, with 22 Chinese crew on board. Having discovered that the crew were literally starving, ITF affiliates in Indonesia donated sacks of rice to the crew as a humanitarian emergency aid. They also visited the Chinese Embassy in Jakarta and requested the Ambassador help in the crews repatriation to Beijing.
As regards the problems faced by seafarers in this region I would like to draw your attention to the activities of many manning agents which give cause for concern. Like flags of convenience, they take the financial privileges offered by their position but they are not often willing to take the responsibilities. Many agents take money from seafarers for jobs(in contravention of ILO Convention No 179) and blacklisting is commonplace to keep the rew 'in line'. The core ILO labour standards of Freedom of Association and Collective Bargaining are disregarded. Allotments are delayed and unauthorised deductions have even been made from bank accounts of the crew. If the owner disappears leaving the crew stranded and unpaid, the manning agent provides absolutely no assistance whatsoever in helping the crew to get home or get paid. In our experience they also act against the interests of the crew when legitimate claims are made for loss of life or disability. One union in Africa reports the manning agent taking 75-80% of the salary of the crew as a fee. This kind of injustice should not be permitted to continue and we hope that the link between crew and employer will improve and the influences of the manning agent reduce.
