Member unions of the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) have helped recover more than $1.7 million in wages owed to seafarers amid a concerning rise in abandonment cases by shipowners.
The national union affiliates have assisted more than 135 seafarers across 12 ships in the Arab World to return to their families across the globe.
“Cases of abandonment and unpaid wages are definitely on the rise across the world, and in this region in particular. We’re also seeing more employers withholding the wages they owe to seafarers – and seafarers are paying the price,” Mohamed Arrachedi, the ITF’s Arab World and Iran Network coordinator, said.
“A major factor is crew change. Governments’ Covid-19 border restrictions and the cost of international flights mean that ever more employers are cutting their losses and abandoning their obligations towards seafarers – often folding their business with seafarers still on board and thousands of dollars out of pocket.”
Arrachedi said that, in typical cases of abandonment, employers will stop paying wages for a number of weeks, then months.
“They will promise the crew the outstanding wages, as well as speedy repatriation if the crew’s contracts are over. They keep promising. And then one day, a shipowner or their agent will stop responding to crew’s messages.
“Employers can often vanish without a trace. Gone.”
The ITF said that not all instances of unpaid wages result in abandonment, which can make it hard for seafarers to know when their employer is being honest about why wages are not being paid.
Seafarers scared to ‘rock the boat’
As explained, many seafarers are often concerned about the consequences of arguing with their employer over matters like pay as they fear they might be blacklisted and won’t be able to get another contract.
The second reason for the hesitancy to speak out is that shipowners are seafarers’ tickets home. Under the Maritime Labour Convention, an employer pays for the cost of getting seafarers to and from ships. Seafarers worry that an angered shipowner could defer or deny them repatriation as punishment for raising concern over unpaid wages.
What is more, repatriation during COVID-19 relies heavily on the determination of the employers to navigate obstructive bureaucracy and put seafarers on record-high priced flights.
For many seafarers tired after 12, 14 or 18 months at sea and desperate to get home, making an enemy of their employer is a risk they are not willing to take.
“In most of these cases, we had to fight hard to ensure seafarers’ rights were respected, and it always requires that they first stand up for themselves and speak up. So many of these seafarers were intimidated and threatened for even contacting the ITF,” says Arrachedi.
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