Taiwanese Shipping Operator to Pay Unpaid Wages

Taiwanese shipping operator Shih Wei Navigation and the International Transport Workers’ Federation in Australia have reached an agreement on payment of outstanding salaries to crew who had served on one of the company’s vessels.

Namely, after, what ITF described as several months of agonizing negotiations, Shih Wei Navigation agreed to pay the claim made by ITF Assistant Coordinator, Matt Purcell  for USD 404,000 payable and owing to 48 Chinese seafarers that had served on the Panamanian flagged MV Blessing SW last year.

This is a result of two inspections conducted on the vessel in November 2013 and later in January this year in the Port of Portland, Victoria, ITF said.

Matt Purcell said that in January this year, they paid a further USD 33,000 owing to the crew in order to clear the port, as they were afraid that the vessel may be detained by the Australian Maritime Safety Authority.

“This is not the first time these owners have been caught with double books as they were also detected last year on the MV Stamina SW whereby the same operators eventually owned up and paid out USD 187,000 to the crews serving on that vessel,” Purcell said.

“ITF Australia in conjunction with London Office are now supervising the payment method of the 48 Chinese seafarers in order to ensure that they actually receive the money they are owed,” he added.