Skip to main content

ITF delivers justice for Yangtze Fortune crew abandoned off Australian coast – seafarers repaid missing wages and repatriated home

ニュース 記者発表資料

Seafarers stranded aboard a livestock carrier vessel abandoned off the Australian coast have finally been repaid their missing wages and repatriated home with the assistance of the International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF).

The Yangtze Fortune (IMO: 9336282) was arrested in Portland, Victoria by the Australian Federal Court in December 2022 and shortly after it was abandoned by its Hong Kong owners. Throughout the months since, the ITF has been working with the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) and the country’s federal Admiralty Marshall to support the crew and fight for complete restitution of the crew’s missing wages.

The ship, which was registered under the Liberian flag, has operated on a regular trading route between Australia and China in recent years. The Fortune was anchored near Portland, western Victoria, where the crew have languished since the vessel’s detention in September last year. The ship’s planned voyage to China with a cargo of live cattle was cancelled when a crack was discovered in the ship's hull.

The Yangtze Fortune vessel

The vessel then became subject to an abandonment notice lodged with the International Labour Organisation (ILO) by the ITF. The ship was also subject to Australian Federal Court proceedings brought by commercial creditors from Singapore to recover debts owed to them by the ship’s owner.

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

“These workers had to stay with their abandoned ship while sale processes were afoot in order to ensure they would receive compensation and backpay for the months of wages that had been withheld from them by their employers”, Bray said. 

Records indicated that, collectively, the stranded seafarers were owed more than a quarter of a million dollars in unpaid wages. The ITF’s forensic investigation of pay records also revealed that the crew’s wages payments in both September and August of last year had been made using monies set aside for workers’ leave entitlements and the company’s provident fund.

An initial group of crew, approximately 20, were permitted to depart Portland in January, however 16 crew were required by Australian law to remain on board to respond to any emergencies. 

Crew onboard the Yangtze Fortune 

The remaining original crew will return to shore in Portland for the final time today before travelling to Melbourne and boarding a flight to Manila. A replacement crew, supplied by the ship’s new owner, has now relieved them.

The ITF fought to ensure the safety and wellbeing of the crew for the months they’ve been stuck in Australian waters, but crucially the local Inspectorate team has delivered wage justice that might otherwise have been robbed from crew without the ITF’s industrial and legal intervention.

ENDS

About the ITF: The International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) is a democratic, affiliate-led federation of transport workers’ unions recognised as the world’s leading transport authority. We fight passionately to improve working lives; connecting trade unions and workers’ networks from 147 countries to secure rights, equality and justice for their members. We are the voice of the almost-20 million women and men who move the world.

Media contact: media@itf.org.uk 

現場の声

ニュース

南米大陸横断回廊のトラック運転手を保護するILO勧告

南米大陸横断回廊の道路運送を持続可能にする画期的な勧告を ILO が発表  この ILO 勧告 は南米大陸横断回廊を走行するトラック運転手の労働条件・安全衛生向上のための具体的な計画を示したもので、南米の ITF 加盟組合、使用者団体、各国政府の合意の成果である。  チリ、ボリビア、アルゼンチン、パラグアイ、ブラジルを横断するこの回廊は、輸送コストの削減と雇用機会の拡大を通じて
ニュース

ITFの女性が世界を動かす!

ジェンダー平等が約束ではなく、実践される世界を築く  2024 年 10 月の大会での選出以降、初の女性委員会が今週2日間にわたり開催され、活発な議論と意見交換を経て、向こう5年間の優先事項が確認された。  連帯と女性のリーダーシップというテーマがすべての議論に貫かれ、女性交通運輸労働者のために成果を実現し、強力で平等な組合を構築する活動計画の基礎が固められた。  ジェンダーに起因する賃金格差