Docked at Liverpool, the Philipp saw a fiasco of unpaid?wages paid out, snatched back and then finally paid to the crew under the protective eyes of coastguard &?police??
The Filipino crew of the Gibraltar registered container vessel PHILIPP were finally paid their owed wages?Tuesday following the intervention of the International Transport Federation (ITF)?and the Gibraltar Maritime Administration.?
Half the crew have now ended their present contract and?are back?in Manila, landing Thursday 20th after flying out of Manchester airport. ?
It was discovered by ITF Inspector Tommy Molloy in Liverpool in September that the owner - VEGA REEDEREI FRIEDRICH DAUBER GMBH & CO KG - based in the German city of Hamburg, had been operating a double book-keeping system which had seen the crew cheated of more than USD230,000.
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Some of the Filipino crew members with ITF inspector Tommy Molloy at Liverpool docks after getting their wages repaid a second (and hopefully last) time
This was previously reported in Balita Pinoy (The original story on the Philipp), and this, plus other interventions by the ITF and the flag administration, resulted in a total climdown by the company and the money was finally repaid to the crew.
When presented with the evidence uncovered by Molloy, the company admitted the fraud and agreed to pay the wages owed in accordance with the crew's contracts of employment.
Molloy oversaw payment of the owed wages in Liverpool on 4th October but he was so concerned by what he described as "the overbearing presence" of the Manila based crewing agent who had travelled to the vessel, that he re-boarded some hours later with officers from Liverpool Port Police only to discover that the money had been taken back from the crew.
The money which was originally paid out, then snatched back. The crew finally got it back
The crew had been sufficiently affected by the crewing agent's presence on board to declare that they had "voluntarily" returned the money and that they did "... not want" their rightful wages. Only two crew members held on to their wages and Molloy checked on their well-being when the vessel called back in the port on 11th October.
Arend Brugge one of the managing partners?of the company which is based in Hamburg had tried to tell Balita Pinoy that no pressure had been put on the crew to repay the money; he did not however offer a satisfactory explanation of why his company had paid the money to the crew only to get it back "voluntarily".
Mr Vicente Fedelicio of Vega Crewing (white shirt shaking hands with a crew member)?and Captain Meyn (in the doorway with hands in pocket)?of Vega Reederei at the original payout. After this photo was taken they got the money ($230,000USD) back?from the crew members, this was when police and the ITF had left the Philipp. Images courtesy of ITF/Nautilus
He also tried to state that the agreement which would mean the crew would be paid correctly, and shown in one set of books, had only been signed in Sweden as a result of a mistake by an office girl. Brugge failed to say how an office girl would ever have been allowed to sign such a major agreement without the knowledge of the Hamburg management.
What really happened was that if the company had not signed the correct agreement giving the crew a proper?living wage last September, the Philipp would not have been allowed to unload and load in any Swedish port.
The fact that the ITF's Molloy had seen both sets of books blew the whistle on the scam.
But following the intervention of the flag state - The Gibraltar Maritime Administration - the company have been forced to hand back the money to the rest of its rightful owners, the crew members who had been underpaid originally.
Balita Pinoy got in touch with the Gibraltar administrator on Oct 17, who confirmed the fact that they had been appraised of the situation by the ITF and had taken action against the Hamburg based company who would be repaying all the owed many as per the correct crew agreements on pay and conditions.
Alan Cubbin the Gibraltar Maritime Administrator said;
?I was made aware of this through my MCA colleagues on the MNWB in Liverpool and immediately sent two surveyors to visit the company?s HQ in Germany to carry out an ISM Audit into the crew arrangements on this and the other vessels the company operate on the Gibraltar flag. During this Audit it became apparent that the other vessels operated by the company had Total Crew Cost Agreements in place with the ITF and attempts to negotiate a similar Agreement for the Phillip had been on-going for some months.
Notwithstanding these attempts the company readily accepted they had an obligation to pay the crew in accordance with the Agreement in place and these repayments will be made, in the presence of both the ILO and the MCA, when the vessel arrives at Liverpool on the 18 October.
The company also accepted to maintain two sets of books was not only not in accordance with the ILO Conventions but was a practise which was simply not acceptable to the Gibraltar Maritime Administration.?
Alan Cubbin also said;
?This company is not a bad company in that the ships are well maintained and apart from the odd deficiencies are well run. Like many companies they have established a crewing agency and while, at the moment, there is little action the Flag State can take against any crewing agency this will change when the Maritime Labour Convention comes into force. Then all crew agencies will have to be approved and this will allow the?flag state to take action against them, up to and including withdrawing recognition, and thus they would not be allowed to supply crew to serve on vessels registered with the flag state. We will continue to monitor the company and will bring this case to the attention of the UK MCA and through them the European Maritime Safety Agency in Lisbon.?
Molloy was back on board on 18th October to once again oversee payment and commented afterwards, "This time we hope the company and their crewing agent are smart enough not to try to steal the money back again. We have correspondence from the Labour Attach? at the Philippines Embassy in London stating that the matter is to be investigated in the Philippines via the Philippines Overseas Employment Administration and that no action against the crew, such as blacklisting, will be tolerated. The flag administration in Gibraltar have also taken the matter seriously and would not take kindly to any further attempts to perpetrate this theft."
"The company has tried to create a smokescreen to suggest that this fraud wasn't really their fault. They are claiming they had been trying unsuccessfully for many months to conclude an employment agreement with the ITF. Yet they already had an agreement with us that they were not honouring, although by keeping two sets of accounts they were pretending to. But both they and the Crewing Agent were fully aware of what they were up to and there ought to be a penalty to pay. Whilst the intervention of the flag state to recover stolen wages is welcomed, repaying wages owed is not a penalty."
"As far as I am aware, when the Maritime Labour Convention (MLC) comes into force flag States will have to require that shipowners who recruit seafarers from non-ratifying countries ensure that the agencies are compliant with the convention. This includes payment in full and in accordance with employment agreements. In countries that have ratified there should be a licensing and certification system in place which removes the onus of verification from the flag State. It is strange for the flag State, which has primary responsibility for regulation on board regardless of whether the MLC is in force or not, should look to others to take action. They suggest they are going to report to Port State Control and European Maritime Safety Agency which seems to me to be a reversal of the principle roles of flag and port State. There is nothing to stop the flag from outlawing malpractice on board its vessels now, and from threatening to withdraw registration from shipowners who bring the flag into disrepute. With such a black and white case, we will be watching to see what transpires."
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