21.04.2021

INDUSTRIAL AGREEMENT ON MARITIME TRANSPORT FOR 2021-2024 IS SIGNED

Trade unions and employers signed the Federal Industrial Agreement on Maritime Transport for 2021-2024, stipulating  minimum standards regarding working conditions for seafarers employed on  Russian-flagged vessels. The document was signed on behalf of the workers by Mr. Yuri Sukhorukov, Chairman of the Seafarers Union of  Russia (SUR), Mr. Oleg Yakovenko, Chairman of Trade Union of Water Transport Workers of the Russian Federation (PRVT), Mr. Aleksandr  Korchagin, Chairman of the Russian Oil, Gas and Construction Workers' Union (ROGWU) and Mr. Igor Fomichev,  Chairman of the Russian Trade Union of Nuclear Power and Industry Workers (RTUNPIW). On behalf of the  All-Russian industrial association of employers "Russian Chamber of Shipping"  the Agreement was signed by it’s President,  Mr. Alexei Klyavin. 

According to  Mr. Igor Kovalchuk, SUR First Vice Chairman,  the adopted document has been amended to update it’s previous version that was being in force over the past three years. In particular, the Industrial Agreement  reflects all new requirements of the Maritime Labor Convention, which entered into force on December 26, 2020. The amendments ensure that a seafarer’ employment agreement shall continue to have effect while a seafarer is held captive regardless of whether the date of its expiry passed.

This means that wages  and other entitlements  under the seafarers’ employment agreement shall continue to be paid  during the entire period of  captivity and until the seafarer is released and duly repatriated. It is important that seafarers should  be repatriated after release at the employer's expense regardless of how long it has been since his capture. 

-The Industrial Agreement stipulates only minimum requirements  regarding working conditions for seafarers employed on  Russian-flagged vessels, - Mr. Kovalchuk noted. - Shipowners can draw on them in the absence of a collective agreement, but at the same time the can offer their employees much more attractive employment conditions.

It is important to note that in the course of collective bargaining on preparation of the draft document, the social partners failed to agree on some issues which were included into the Protocol of Disagreements. Among others, shipowners rejected the offer of trade unions to pay compensation to crew members in case of enforced  increase in the working period on board a vessel , i.e. in excess of 180 days.  

Such a situation, for example, may arise due to the imposed restrictions given to adverse epidemiological situation. Also, employers refused to supplement the Industrial Agreement with a clause preventing seafarers, if possible, to perform cargo handling work leaving it to dockers.

Another disagreement, on which, by the way, the parties could not agree in 2017 either, is the proposal of the trade unions to supplement the Agreement with a Section on the working conditions for crews working on board the vessels operating  in war and piracy zones or  in epidemiological high-risk areas.
So, among several initiatives, it refers to the payment of double basic wages to all crew members while the vessel is in the indicated zones.

- Though not all our proposals were accepted, along with signing of the Agreement the social partners established a permanent industrial commission, consisting of equal representation of trade unions and shipowners, - noted Mr. Kovalchuk. - We hope that within the framework of this work  we’ll be able to succeed in resolving the issues from the Protocol of Disagreements, as well as other emerging problems related to the working conditions of seafarers.

Let us add that at present the Federal Industry Agreement on Maritime Transport for 2021-2024 passes the registration procedure with the Federal Service for Labor and Employment of the Russian Federation, then it will be published on the official website of the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of the Russian Federation. However, this entire process is of a notification nature: the document entered into force on April 7, 2021.

 

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