AUSTRALIAN SHIPPING
F
Foreign ships trading on the Australian coast illegally
lag of convenience vessels have been carrying Australian cargo on the coast without a licence, International Transport Workers Federation inspectors have uncovered. “We have found breaches of the Fair Work Act with crew not getting award rates as required when working the coast,” said ITF Australia Coordinator Ian Bray. “We would raise the crew complaint with the Fair Work Ombudsman, and they would say they were unable to investigate because the ship didn’t have a temporary licence!” So lax is the Australian government’s policing of the temporary licence system, it appears many ships no longer apply for a licence, or display their licences, while working the domestic shipping trade. The Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Communications is not enforcing the Act, the ITF contends. “We stumbled on it,” said Bray. “When we brought the matter to their attention, they said they knew nothing of the practice.” The department has since requested the ITF provide details of breaches. “We are going to shine a light on the temporary licence regime,” said Bray. “We have evidence companies don’t even apply for a licence now. We’ve uncovered cases in the past year, where we’ve found the ship could not even verify it had a licence to trade on
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the coast. We are seeing this time and time again. The companies are not displaying the licence in accordance with the Act, or they haven’t even bothered to apply for one.” One example is the Marshall Islands Flag of Convenience container ship MV Wide Hotel. Crew on board complained to ITF Inspector Matt Purcell in July 2020 when the ship arrived in Melbourne. They said their vessel had been trading between the ports of Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane since May. But they had not been paid their cabotage bonus on the last trip. Officials at the Fair Work Ombudsman said they did not have a licence. “The ship used to have a licence under a different name,” said ITF
“We are going to shine a light on the temporary licence regime. We have evidence companies don’t even bother to apply for a licence now.” – Ian Bray
Australia deputy coordinator Matt Purcell. “The crew say it doesn’t have a licence, Fair Work says it doesn’t have a licence and the Singaporean owner says it doesn’t have a licence. But crew produced documentation showing it is doing the coastal trade, taking containers from one Australian port to another. It’s been with Fair Work 12 months now and we haven’t heard anything about what they are going to do about it.” Bray said with only four ITF inspectors across 44 Australian ports, what they have uncovered to date was likely to be only the tip of the iceberg. “Department officials now want to sit down with us and discuss the breaches,” said Bray. “We are going to take them up on this.” He stressed it was up to the department to ensure ships complied with the Act. “We are not here to do their job,” said Bray. “Our job is to look after the welfare of international seafarers on our coast and get Australian seafarers back up the gangway.” Bray said the talks would enable the ITF to show the authorities where the gaps in the temporary licence regime were likely to exist. He would also be making some suggestions to ensure better compliance. “We are going to be asking them what they are going to do about it,” he said. •
www.mua.org.au
