Siem Amethyst

Local jobs at risk in offshore industry

A local crew in the Taranaki offshore industry have been pushed out by overseas owned agents OSM – but the Maritime Union is fighting back for local jobs.

Maritime Union Wellington Branch Secretary Jim King says five crew members working aboard the ‘Siem Amethyst’ had been expected to accompany the vessel back to Asia in May 2021 at the conclusion of its charter.

Four of the crew were New Zealanders and one was a Maritime Union of Australia member covered by the same terms and conditions of employment.

The ‘Siem Amethyst’ had been working in the Taranaki offshore having been delivered by a crew from Asia earlier this year.

However, without the knowledge of crew or Union, crewing agency OSM had secretly kept the overseas seafarers in New Plymouth in accommodation for several months and had now given them the job of crewing the vessel on its return voyage. Mr King says the long standing arrangement as per the employment agreement was New Zealand crews would do this work.

He says industrial and legal action was in the pipeline, and the dispute was already on the radar across the Tasman with the Maritime Union of Australia whose members work for OSM in that jurisdiction.

Our Union position is that OSM is undermining the New Zealand maritime industry, and is creating a major problem in the offshore industry.

Mr King makes it clear the dispute is not with overseas crew members.

“This dispute is with an overseas owned company profiting off our natural resources but attacking local jobs and decent wages and conditions.”

He says the one motive is pure corporate greed, as the motive was the extra profit from inferior terms and conditions.

The Maritime Union has approached the Government to act now as the situation is a clear breach of not just an employment agreement but rules around overseas workers in New Zealand.

South Island floods highlight need for coastal shipping

Coastal shipping could provide an essential lifeline to regions in future disasters.

Recent floods in Canterbury have disrupted and damaged the land-based supply chain.

Maritime Union National Secretary Craig Harrison says natural disasters like earthquakes and flooding were a feature of life in New Zealand. The latest events come on top of the COVID-19 pandemic which was still causing massive disruption and congestion in the supply chain, he says.

“We are entering into a new and uncertain age and the focus needs to go onto supply chain security.”

It is clear there would be ongoing and increased severe weather events due to climate change, and there needed to be redundancies built into the system.

“If we don’t get this right, we are going to see ongoing disruption that will have dire economic consequences and could potentially endanger communities.”

Mr Harrison says the Government now recognized the need for a true multi-mode transport sector, but needed to deliver promptly.

There is now widespread support within the logistics, transport and ports sectors for rebuilding New Zealand owned and operated coastal shipping, which over many years had suffered from poor policy settings and lack of support compared to roads.

The key goal was New Zealand flagged ships connecting regions with major centres on a hub and spoke model.

“Coastal shipping is the obvious solution for lowemission, secure transport going forward.”

Call for action over Fiji trafficking scam

New Zealand transport workers’ unions have called on the New Zealand government to put Fiji on notice after an investigation into the potential human trafficking of dozens of Filipino seafarers in the country’s shipping industry.

20 Filipino seafarers were recruited by Goundar Shipping to operate its ferries in Fiji. Goundar promised seafarers monthly wages of $1000 USD but paid as little as $340 USD and the company refused to pay more than AUD $250,000 owed to seafarers in unpaid wages.

“Investigations by unions have uncovered allegations of widespread abuse, underpayment, unsafe conditions and even human trafficking and slavery in New Zealand’s own backyard,” said the chair of the ITF New Zealand National Coordinating Committee, Paul Tolich.

“Dozens of Filipino seafarers were convinced to come to our region and work on Fiji’s biggest ferry fleet on the promise of fair wages and conditions. But failure by the Fiji government to enforce these seafarers’ employment contracts, workers’ and human rights, meant the seafarers have been trapped working against their will in Fiji for years.”

Fijian labour, immigration and law enforcement officials did not respond to responded seafarers’ complaints against Goundar Shipping for more than three months, and only when media attention was brought to their case by the ITF in February 2021.

Mr Tolich says the New Zealand unions welcomed news a Police investigation had finally been launched, but had fears of a potential whitewash once the seafarers had left the country back to the Philippines.

New Zealand ITF affiliates had contacted the New Zealand Ministers of Foreign Affairs and Workplace Relations, urging them to raise the seafarers’ case immediately with their counterparts in Suva.

“Fiji needs to know New Zealand expects a thorough investigation of the abuse these workers suffered, and any offending employers fully prosecuted.”