Keep impossible repatriate

The trade union decided for the shipowner where to put the comma. 

The Kaliningrad Regional Organization of the Seafarers' Union of Russia assisted the 3d Engineer to sign off from the vessel. Before that, the seafarer had been being rejected repatriation upon his contract expiry for 1.5 months under various excuses. 

The seafarer contacted the SUR in late December. He told that his contract had expired, but the company tried in every way to keep him on board. As usual, the crew member was initially offered the opportunity to extend the contract. However, upon his refusal, the company proceeded to delay his repatriation to the best of its ability. The company explained that the delay was due to different reasons, like the port was inconvenient to arrange the crew change, or there were no appropriate replacements. 

When all the unconvincing excuses ran out, the shipowner stopped communicating on this issue altogether and just ignored the requests about the replacement. 

By the way, the 3d Engineer even considered leaving the vessel without authorization in the port of Kiel. The SUR reminds that uncoordinated abandonment of a vessel may result in, at best, a deduction of salary in full, and, at worst, an arrest for illegal stay in a foreign country. 

Fortunately, the union persuaded the seafarer from taking a rash step, asking him to be patient. The KRO SUR applied to the Liepaja Port State Control. During inspection, the seafarer's complaint was confirmed, and the PSC Officer issued the shipping company an order to arrange a replacement for the crew member. 

From its side, the KRO SUR contacted colleagues from the Belgian union and asked them to monitor the repatriation of the Third Engineer at the next port of call – Ghent.

 - Today we received a message from the seafarer that he is on his way home, - the KRO SUR Chairperson Lyudmila Izmalkova noted. — The Third Engineer had been awaiting his repatriation for 1.5 months, which is in violation of the regulations. After the expiration of the contract, any crew member has the right to request repatriation, and it is unacceptable to compel a seafarer to sign an additional contract.