Thursday, 10 September 2015 12:38
Written by AdminSailor
The "Apellis" has been detained off the coast of Esperance in Western Australia, amid allegations of crew mistreatment.
The International Transport Workers Federation (ITF) lodged a complaint about the treatment of staff on board the grain carrier, claiming they had been denied fresh food, water and wages.
A surveyor from the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) boarded the vessel on Sep 9, 2015, while it was anchored in the Esperance port zone. AMSA uncovered a number of problems onboard including one crew member working beyond medical restrictions, unpaid wages, no working washing machine and poor quality food.
ITF assistant national coordinator Matthew Purcell was extremely concerned as some crew members had not been paid in eight months. The vessel was supposed to sail last night but in his conversations with AMSA the vessel was detained until such time as all these issues have been resolved.
The crew haven't been paid for several months and there's obviously issues about the standard of food on board the vessel and also that some crew members have been onboard the vessel too long so they need to go because their contracts are expired.
There was also an issue that the seafarer's contract was not the same as what they showed us with their payrolls, so they were paying them less than their contract. The owner, the Greek shipping agency Pyrsos Shipping Co Ltd said the crew had not been paid because of issues with the Greek banking system.
The ITF expected the wage issues would be sorted within days. Report with photo: www.abc.net.au/ne...