Inspectors of FETO SUR visited vessel with Russian crew

Today, Inspectors of the Far Eastern Territorial Organization of the Seafarers’ Union of Russia have visited a Ro-Pax "Alexander Deev" (Russian flag, IMO 9940186) docked at Nakhodka shipyard. According to FETO SUR Chairman Nikolay Sukhanov, the ferry was built at the Amur Shipyard in 2023, it was designated to serve Vanino-Kholmsk ferry line. The vessel can carry railway cars, trains, cars and up to 200 passengers, The ice class of the vessel enable it to operate in ice up to 1 m depth. The registered owner of the vessel is JSC GTLK from Salekhard, the operator and beneficial owner is Sakhalin Passenger Fleet JSC from Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk. The captain knew the FETO SUR Inspectors at once : he said that in April last year, when he was working on board MV MM Runner (Sierra Leone flag), the SUR representatives visited the vessel in the port of Nakhodka. The captain organized a short vessel tour and told about working conditions and provided to the Inspectors an opportunity to communicate with crew members. -The crew consists of 33 seafarers, most of them are residents of Sakhalin, only the cook is from Nakhodka,- Nikolai Sukhanov said. —The salary for an AB Seaman is about RUB110,000, and that for a captain is about RUB500,000. There is no collective agreement available on board the vessel. Daily food allowance is RUB680 per person; there are no complaints about the quality and quantity of food. The seafarers were asking questions about the activity of the Seafarers’ Union of Russia and its tasks for the near future. -We told the crew about the Maritime Labor Convention 2006, which Russia ratified in 2013, - Sukhanov noted. — SUR took part in its drafting. The MLC was a breakthrough in the safeguarding of seafarers' rights. However, like any other document, it has its advantages and disadvantages. He explained that there is an opinion among seafarers that the convention does not contain the most important thing - specific figures of minimum wage rates. “Cases when wages of seafarers working on Russian-flagged vessels are lower than those of their colleagues working under foreign flags are really quite frequent, - the FETO SUR Head explains. — By the way, the base wage rate for an AB Seaman, which is set by a subcommittee of the Joint Maritime Commission of the International Labor Organization, is USD666 from January 1, 2024. This is the figure we should aim for, including the Russian-flagged vessels. FETO SUR Inspectors handed over to the crew the fresh magazines "Maritime Unions Herald" which tell about the activities of SUR, and calendars for 2024. “We invited the seafarers to join SUR to conclude a collective agreement with the company. The only way to enforce seafarers' rights is to join our efforts, ” - Nikolay Sukhanov concluded.