Skip to main content

'Abandoned' livestock carrier ship to be auctioned in Victoria but stranded crew yet to receive wages

ニュース

An international livestock carrier ship, the Yangtze Fortune, has been arrested in Portland, Victoria by the Australian Federal Court. In the meantime, the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) and the International Transport Workers' Federation are working with the Admiralty Marshall to support the crew after the ship's owner failed to pay their wages or meet its obligations under international maritime law.

The ship, which is registered under the Flag of Liberia but which operates a trading route between Australia and China, has been anchored near Portland since October and is subject to an abandonment notice lodged with the International Labour Organization. The ship is also subject to Australian Federal Court proceedings brought by commercial creditors from Singapore to recover debts owed to them by the ship’s owner.

After many weeks at anchor near Portland, provisions aboard the ship are running low and many of the crew are desperate to return home but must now stay with the ship while court action and the ship’s sale process unfold.

The ITF Australian Inspectorate Coordinator, Ian Bray, said that the more than 30 crew members, all of whom hail from the Phillipines, had been abandoned by their employer on the stranded ship.

“These workers are already owed, collectively, more than a quarter of a million dollars in unpaid wages, and while the court action is on foot they must stay with their ship despite the ever diminishing prospect of receiving what is owed to them” Mr Bray said.

Shipboard documentation shows that the crew received only one third of what they were owed in October, and the ITF’s investigation has also revealed that the crew’s wages payments in both September and August were made using monies set aside for workers’ leave entitlements and the company’s provident fund.

ITF Australia’s Assistant Coordinator, Matt Purcell, who is providing support to the crew while they’re alongside the wharf in Portland, said that five members of the crew had already clocked up eight months aboard the vessel and were desperate to return home to their families. “These vulnerable, exploited crew face the prospect of spending months longer aboard this ship in dreadful conditions just to get what’s already owed to them, or the choice of returning home after 8 or 9 months away with nothing to show for it,” he said.

Discussions with the crew manager, ship owner and the Flag State have revealed that the company holds little hope of trading out of its financial problems. The ITF and AMSA have been working with the Flag State and the Admiralty Marshall appointed to handle the sale of the ship to find a just outcome for the seafarers stuck aboard in Portland. Unfortunately, even if the ship is sold at auction, the crews may find themselves at the mercy of the market if the proceeds of sale fail to cover the company’s debts to creditors and the total unpaid wages bill.

Ian Bray said that the Yangtze Fortune is representative of a broader problem in the livestock shipping industry where crews go unpaid and ships operate on the precipice of insolvency.

“We believe there is an epidemic of borderline insolvency amongst the operators of these livestock ships as they repeatedly feature among the worst cases in our inspections around Australia and internationally,” Mr Bray said.

現場の声

ニュース 記者発表資料

ITFは停戦合意を歓迎し、合意の厳格な履行と持続可能な和平への一歩を求める

国際運輸労連(ITF)は、数百万人の市民に計り知れない死と苦しみを与えてきた15カ月にわたる壊滅的な戦争を終結させることになるハマスとイスラエルの停戦合意の発表を歓迎する。 この合意により、殺りくに終止符が打たれ、人命を救う人道支援が妨げられることなく迅速にガザに届けられ、引き離された家族が再会でき、破壊されたものを再建する厳しい道のり開始する可能性が直ちに提供された。
ニュース

韓国の交通運輸労働者、民主主義と 安全な労働条件を求めてスト

韓国の運輸・公共部門の労働者 2 万人が、政府の行動に抗議し、労働条件の改善を求めてストライキ集会を開催している。 12 月 7 日(土)、交通運輸と公共部門で働く韓国公共運輸労連 (KPTU) の組合員が国会前に集結し、政府に抗議し、尹錫悦(ユン・ソンニョル)大統領の弾劾を求める合同ストライキ集会を開催した。 12 月 3 日に大統領が突如、戒厳令を発布し、政治活動や市民の自由
ニュース

ITF、韓国の労働者の権利と民主主義を要求

国際運輸労連 (ITF) は、韓国で違法に戒厳令を施行しようとした尹錫悦(ユン・ソンニョル)大統領の試みを強く非難する。 ITF に連なる 1,650 万人の交通運輸労働者は、民主主義を守るための闘いを続けている韓国の労働者に揺るぎない連帯を示している。 ユン大統領による火曜日の違法な戒厳令の発令に、世界は衝撃を隠せない。ユン大統領は、 1980 年代の軍事独裁政権を彷彿とさせる言葉を使い