For the second time this year, the crew of the vessel Liga (IMO 8406779, Cameroon flag, built in 1985) has appealed to the International Transport Workers' Federation - there are again problems with the payment of wages on board. The sailors - seven Russians from Rostov-on-Don, Astrakhan, Kaliningrad and Krasnodar and a senior engineer from Syria - have not received the money owed to them since June, in addition, the company refused to transfer 50% additional payments for work in Africa. In total, over 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 remains 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.
As ITF inspector in Novorossiysk Olga Ananyina explained, the crew's last appeal came in late May, when the ship was in the Guinea area. At that time, the sailors had not been paid for more than two months, and in early June they even refused to go to unload. In addition, two crew members fell ill with malaria, and it took a lot of effort to get the company - Tarron Operating Ltd, based in Klaipeda, Lithuania - to hospitalize them and treat them.
The shipowner repeatedly refused to pay the crew, citing difficulties with transfers, sanctions, and lack of cash, so the ITF inspector had to add Liga to the list of abandoned ships - according to the provisions of the Maritime Labour Convention (MLC), a crew can be considered abandoned if they have not been paid wages for a period of at least two months. After that, almost immediately all the difficulties that the company cited disappeared: the crew was paid their debts from March to May, and the sick were repatriated. In total, six people were written off the ship with full payment.
However, already in early November, the crew – some of the remaining sailors on board and several new arrivals – again asked for help due to non-payment of wages since June and other problems on board. In addition to the lack of food and unbearable temperatures, the sailors complain that there are fleas and bedbugs on the ship, which periodically make people sick. The ITF inspector notes that given that the shipowner does not respond to letters, and the Cameroon flag has long been on the black list of the Paris Memorandum, the ship will again be listed as abandoned.
It should be noted that the contracts concluded with Tarron Operating by seafarers were signed by its director Sergey Evgenievich Karchemov. The company also manages two more vessels. One of them, Lahta (IMO 8420086, Cameroon flag, built in 1985), was detained in August of this year in Brunsbüttel (Germany) for 22 days. In total, state port control inspectors issued 43 comments, including two under the MLC, including non-payment of wages. The company also manages one more vessel, Litsa (IMO 8906286, Cameroon flag, built in 1990).
It should be noted that the same Sergey Karchemov also signed contracts for the sailors working on the ship "Alexander Tvardovsky" (IMO 9057290, Russian flag, built in 1996) of the company OOO "KRONKARGO". In August, the crew also sought help from the ITF and the Russian Seafarers' Union due to the fact that they had not been paid their wages for several months. There were also problems with food supplies on board.
The Russian Seafarers' Union is calling for the Liga and other vessels of Tarron Operating not to be considered for employment: the constantly recurring problems with wages and working conditions, which the shipowner begins to resolve only after the union or port control intervenes, vividly demonstrate the unreliability of the company. Otherwise, the seafarers risk being abandoned.
Source http://www.sur.ru/ru/news/lent/2022-11-14/nenadezhnyj_sudovladelec_21820/
