Unreliable shipowner

For the second time this year, the crew of the Liga vessel (IMO 8406779, flag of Cameroon, built in 1985) has been contacted by the International Transport Workers Federation – problems with the payment of wages have arisen on board again. The sailors – seven Russians from Rostov-on-Don, Astrakhan, Kaliningrad and Krasnodar and a senior mechanic from Syria – have not received the money due to them since June, besides the company refused to transfer 50% of the surcharge for work in Africa. In the total account during this time, the debt has accumulated more than 140 thousand dollars. To this are added almost unbearable working conditions: drinking water on board has run out, food is left for 5-7 days. In addition, due to non-working air conditioners, the temperature not only outside, but also in the cabins sometimes reaches + 50 degrees – at the moment the ship is in Senegal.

Olga Ananyina, an ITF inspector in Novorossiysk, said that the last appeal from the crew came at the end of May, when the ship was in the Guinea area. At that time, the sailors' wages were not paid for more than two months, and in early June they even refused to go to the unloading. In addition, two team members fell ill with malaria, and it took a lot of effort to get the company – based in Klaipeda (Lithuania) Tarron Operating Ltd – hospitalization and treatment.

 

The shipowner repeatedly refused to pay the crew a salary, citing the difficulties of transfers, sanctions, lack of cash, so the ITF inspector had to put Liga on the list of abandoned – according to the provisions of the Maritime Labor Convention (KTMS), the crew can be considered left without help if they are not paid wages for a period of at least two months. After that, almost immediately all the difficulties that the company referred to disappeared: the crew was paid debts from March to May, and the sick were repatriated. In total, six people were written off from the ship with full payment.

However, already in early November, the crew – some of the sailors remaining on board and several newcomers – again asked for help in connection with non-payment of wages since June and other problems on board. In addition to food shortages and unbearable temperatures, sailors complain that there are fleas and bedbugs on the ship, because of which people periodically get sick. The ITF inspector notes: given that the shipowner does not respond to letters, and the flag of Cameroon has long been on the blacklist of the Paris Memorandum, the ship will again be listed as abandoned.

 

It should be noted that the seafarers' contracts concluded with Tarron Operating were signed by its director Sergey Evgenievich Karchemov. There are two more vessels under the management of the company. One of them, Lahta (IMO 8420086, flag of Cameroon, built in 1985), was detained in August of this year in Brunsbuttel (Germany) for 22 days. In total, the inspectors of the state port control made 43 comments to him, including two on KTMS, including non–payment of wages. The management of the company has another vessel, Litsa (IMO 8906286, flag of Cameroon, built in 1990).

It should be noted that the same Sergey Karchemov also signed the contracts of the sailors who worked on the ship "Alexander Tvardovsky" (IMO 9057290, flag of Russia, built in 1996) of the company "KRONKARGO". In August, the crew also sought help from the ITF and the Russian Seafarers' Union due to the fact that he had not been paid for several months. There were also problems with food supplies on board.

 

The Russian seafarers' Union urges not to consider Liga and other vessels of the Tarron Operating company for employment: the constantly recurring problems with wages and working conditions, which the shipowner begins to solve only after the intervention of the trade union or port control, colorfully speak of the unreliability of the company. Otherwise, the sailors risk being abandoned.

Source http://www.sur.ru/ru/news/lent/2022-11-14/nenadezhnyj_sudovladelec_21820/