The recent Fair and Safe Ferries week of action by ITF-affiliated unions in Europe rightfully spotlighted the unequal working and pay conditions in the sector. The other focus of the campaign – the use of seafarers to carry out work that should be done by trained dockers – is likewise important, of course. But it’s the issue of pay that we find more engaging. Isn’t the ITF just out to protect EU jobs? Don’t shipowners have the right to hire cheaper labour from non-EU countries?
The answer to the first question is obvious. Nor can the ITF chaps be blamed for taking the cudgels for British and other EU crews. Where livelihood is at stake, it’s natural to protect your own kind. On the other hand, the whole issue of Asians and other non-EU citizens working on board Euro-ferries is in danger of being racialized. We’re not quite sure if most people see the ITF campaign as a fight for economic equity and justice rather than a case of racial and ethnic discrimination.
The second question is not less complex. Uneven shipboard wage scales and benefit schemes have long been a fact of life, which the ITF itself seems to have accepted. Why else is there an ITF World Wide Provident Fund and an AJSU (All Japan Seamen’s Union) Provident Fund? It might also be argued that wages are not exempt from the law of supply and demand; that different nationalities cannot have the same wages because they have different levels of skills and competence; and that shipping companies, especially during hard times, should be given elbow room on salaries.
All that, though, seems so much rationalisation. Ship owners are not exactly known for their largesse. A good number would likely be paying lower wages if not for the worldwide shortage of qualified officers and the ITF inspectors breathing down their necks. This is understandable; ship owners are businessmen and they need to watch the bottom-line. What isn’t is the tendency to think that Third World crews don’t deserve as much as their EU counterparts and what they’re receiving is good enough for them because they come from poor societies.
How unfair and, yes, how racist. Work on board a ferry is hard. We found out how hard after we helped, many years ago, a young Filipino get employed by a European ferry operator that was running a UK-Belgium shuttle. The poor lad had to quit after completing two work contracts, which was surprising as he had seemed desperate to go overseas. It turned out that his daily routine involved making 65 beds. As a result, he lost a good deal of weight even though he was some kind of health nut and had lifted weights back home in Manila to keep in shape.
In the capitalist world of shipping, the principle of “equal pay for equal work” may sound utopian and unworkable. But giving seafarers and other workers their due is certainly neither. It is something that can and should be done. As the ITF keeps reminding us in so many words, it’s a simple matter of decency. ~Barista Uno
In the late 70’s the ISF/ICS are both at odds with the ITF. But it is not strange that the ITF is now looking the other way where salaries and working conditions are concerned. These three oganizations are bed fellows. Labor and management organizations are both dancing togther in harmony where shipping is concerned….it is the seafarer from “warm body exporters” that bears the brunt of the unfair treatment.
concerned
There is a story in the Bible regarding the ” Parable of the workers”..In the Book of Matthew, Chapter 20….it says,
1 “For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. 2 He agreed to pay them a denarius[a] for the day and sent them into his vineyard.
3 “About nine in the morning he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing. 4 He told them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.’ 5 So they went.
“He went out again about noon and about three in the afternoon and did the same thing. 6 About five in the afternoon he went out and found still others standing around. He asked them, ‘Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?’
7 “‘Because no one has hired us,’ they answered.
“He said to them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard.’
8 “When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first.’
9 “The workers who were hired about five in the afternoon came and each received a denarius. 10 So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each one of them also received a denarius. 11 When they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner. 12 ‘These who were hired last worked only one hour,’ they said, ‘and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.’
13 “But he answered one of them, ‘I am not being unfair to you, friend. Didn’t you agree to work for a denarius? 14 Take your pay and go. I want to give the one who was hired last the same as I gave you. 15 Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?’
Equal pay for an equal days work…. hmm vexatious one.
The question is – what is equal pay?
If you are european your cost of living is far higher than if say indian/phillipino. So should this be linked to the local cost of living?
The european cannot just migrate to india no more than the indian can just migrate to the EU.
Surely the choise then rests with the owner as to who they want to employ at what rates.
The EU is trying to force the issue, me thinks all this will do is drive the flag of the vessel. Bahamas flag is very high quality but cannot insist on Bahamian nationals as Capt or C/Eng, there simply aren’t enough? It must then be an open nationality flag.
Working in an international environment means that we all have to be internationally competative, this would and should be on overall costs of which a part is salary, but does include breakdowns, detentions etc.
There should not be exploitation at all, but forcing salaries against the socio-economic scale in the country of residence does no good to anyone.