Tuesday, 22 April 2008 14:38

A dispute over unpaid seamen's wages on a ship in Cork harbour has been settled.

The ship, the Defender, which is operated by a Latvian company, had been detained in Cork after action by the seafarers' union but is now free to leave the port.

The Irish inspector for the International Transport Federation, Ken Fleming, said it had been a very tough case but it was encouraging that, for the first time, dockers had supported the seafarers.

He said this would make it more difficult in future for shipowners who did not treat their crews properly.

The 1500-tonne Defender is registered in Phnom Penh in Cambodia but operated by Forestry Shipping of Riga in Latvia, which sent company staff to Cork.

Mr Fleming claimed five of the crew had been pressurised into withdrawing their claims.

The rest of the crew, who claimed they had not been paid since last year, are to get $63,000 in back wages and leave the ship. The ITF is arranging for them to go home.

Cork dockers backed the ships' crew, the first time a stand has been taken by a local labour force in Ireland in support of seafarers, according to Mr Fleming, who in the past two years has recovered $1m in unpaid wages.

itfglobal.org [1]