SUR assisted Kaliningrad seafarers to get over 1.5 million rubles

Two seafarers from Kaliningrad, having worked for six months on a fishing vessel operated by one of the Sakhalin-based fishing companies, faced non-payment of wages. 

Having completed the contract, they returned home, but never received the wages in full. Following the intervention of the Seafarers' Union of Russia, the company not only paid off the debt, but also paid a compensation for the late payment of salary. 

The seafarers applied to SUR Kaliningrad Regional Organization for help. They told that according to the terms of the contract, each of them was supposed to get a fixed salary of RUB19,000, but there were also supplementary agreement which specified bonuses. 

According to these documents, the expected amounts of wages were RUB1 million for one of the seafarers and RUB500,000 for the other. 

- The company delayed the wage payment for a long time. At first, their promises were vague: "later", "soon", "next month". Then the employer stopped communicating altogether. At that point, we decided to contact the trade union and the prosecutor's office for assistance, - one of the seafarers said.

Since the vessel is flying the Russian flag, SUR Kaliningrad Regional Organization assisted them contact the Labor Inspectorate. At the same time, the KRO SUR team sent an official letter to the company warning of potential consequences in case of further avoidance of obligations. 

- A week after our intervention and thanks to our persistence, the company fully paid off the debt, paying all the money due, - the KRO SUR Chair Lyudmila Izmalkova reported. 

We should add that after the issue with payments was settled, the employer said that the Chinese New Year was to blame for the delays. 

- According to a company representative, the holidays in China this year fell in January, so they forgot about us. This, of course, sounds funny, we even laughed, - the seafarer added. 

It is worth noting that following the Union's intervention, the company decided to pay the sailors a compensation of several tens of thousands of rubles for the delay in wage payment.