ITF
ITF Flag of Convenience Week of Action by Grahame McLaren ITF Inspector We have now been given confirmation from the ITF Head of Maritime Operations in London that funding for our week of action has been approved. We are organising the Flag of Convenience (FOC) week of action to take place in the very near future. The campaign will comprise the five main ports, Auckland, Tauranga, Wellington, Lyttelton and Port Chalmers. We will have 6-7 participants at each port, dependent on Seafarers’ time on/off and Dockers’ rosters. I will coordinate in Tauranga, Joe Fleetwood in Wellington, and subject to their availability, Garry Parsloe in Auckland, Clinton Norris in Lyttelton and Phil Adams in Port Chalmers. The action will take place from the Monday morning to the Friday evening. The main focus will be to target FOC vessels without ITF agreements, but any other foreign vessels will also come under our scrutiny. The Week of Action will convey a very clear message to all FOC vessel owners and operators who trade in this part of the world that if they want to trade here, they need the appropriate ITF approved agreements.
Seabourn Sojourn I received an email asking for help from three Filipino security staff on board this cruise vessel. There had been an accident en route to New Zealand involving the three crew when they were ordered to fill Breathing Apparatus (BA) bottles with compressed air. They protested that it was not part of their normal duties and that they had never done it before, but their protest fell on deaf ears and they were forced to do it anyway.
20 | The Maritimes | Autumn 2011
Unfortunately during the procedure one of the BA bottles exploded, injuring all three. The 2 men and 1 woman were treated by the ships doctor, with the woman having a cut to the head requiring stitches, one man having burns to his hand from the freezing liquid, and the third man having lacerations and bruising. They all wanted to be signed off on medical grounds, then repatriated and kept on wages, but the company was refusing to do this. I went on board the vessel in Wellington to find that two of the crew involved had already left the vessel in its last port of Auckland. The woman was in Auckland hospital with a fractured skull, and the man with burns to his hand had already been repatriated. I spoke to the remaining man and discovered that he had also been sent ashore to the doctors in Auckland but had been declared fit for work. He was clearly in quite a bit of pain and told me he was unable to work and still wanted to be repatriated. I put his case to the Captain who was very unwilling to send the man home, stating that it was a medical matter, and as two separate doctors had declared him fit for work he was unable to send the man home on medical grounds. After a bit of persuasion, and mentioning that his ship could be delayed unless the situation was resolved, the Captain eventually agreed to sign the man off on medical grounds and repatriate him as per his entitlements under the CBA. I also asked the Captain to instigate a more thorough training programme for anyone who was expected to fill BA bottles, to which he agreed.
Offshore oil and gas safety needs immediate action The Maritime Union says the Government needs to boost its monitoring and enforcement of safety regulations for the offshore oil and gas industry. A Government review released in December 2010 found the Department of Labour inspectorate responsible for the sector is significantly under-resourced. One inspector covers offshore and onshore oil exploration for the entire country, a much lower level of coverage than in countries such as Australia, the UK and Norway. Maritime Union of New Zealand General Secretary Joe Fleetwood says it is a high risk industry, which is a major part of the New Zealand economy and will become a bigger part. The Union was heavily involved in the offshore oil and gas sector, which had great potential, but only if the highest standards were in place. Energy and Resources Minister Gerry Brownlee had stated the Government would like compliance to be “as efficient as possible” but the Maritime Union wanted compliance to be “as effective as possible.” “Efficiency in our industry is a code word for saving dollars as far as we are concerned. We want effective compliance that works, and if doing it right costs more money, slows things down and is inconvenient to the Government or any employer, then too bad. The cost of getting it wrong is just far too high.” The Maritime Union has been pressing for tighter regulations in the maritime sector. “This includes all aspects of safety, all the way from correct use of gangway nets through to the seaworthiness of vessels and conditions of crews, and availability of response vessels for emergency situations. This extends through to the offshore sector.” The number of deaths and injuries in the maritime and mining sector was high. The offshore oil and gas industry combined the risk factors for both industries. 2010 has seen a substantial number of deaths and injuries on board foreign vessels both in ports and working in and around the New Zealand coast and waters, as well as the recent Pike River disaster. “We are a proactive Union – we want the regulations and monitoring to be at top standard before any incident, not in response to things that go wrong when it is too late.”
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