A Cypriot-registered freighter last night remained in Dublin port after a number of crew members sought to be repatriated in a row over unpaid wages and working conditions. Martin Wall, Industry Correspondent, reports.
Nine crew members on the Celtic Star, who are from Romania, have asked the International Transport Federation (ITF) to help them return home and secure money owed in outstanding wages and overtime payments.
The union said its inspectors, who boarded the vessel in Dublin yesterday, had found that members of the crew had been "systematically overworked".
The ITF said that the crew, who have been on the vessel between two weeks and three months, were owed $38,000 (€26,430) in arrears. The ITF co-ordinator for the United Kingdom, Norrie McVicar, who boarded the vessel in Dublin along with his Irish counterpart, told The Irish Times that nine members of crew had informed the ship's master that they were no longer prepared to sail over breaches of their terms and conditions of employment.
Most of the remaining crew are Ukrainian and have not asked for ITF representation.
In its statement the ITF said: "An inspection of the ship's records reveals that the full hours worked by the men are not recorded and many of them are working well in excess of the health and safety maximum.
"Although the men have signed contracts purporting to be ITF agreements, there is no collective agreement with the organisation. The men are also not being properly paid."
The ITF also said that one member of the crew appeared to be suffering from broken ribs following an accident last week and that there was water in an area of the vessel where the bilge pumps may not be working.
Department of Transport inspectors are expected to go on board the vessel today if she remains in port. The ITF also said the ship had been involved in a near miss in the Mersey on Saturday as it almost hit a mud bank as it left Liverpool.
The ship, which is registered in Cyprus and managed by a Greek company, operates a regular freight run between Liverpool and Dublin.