ITF collected $59.5m in unpaid seafarer wages in 2014

In a presentation to the Maritime Manpower Singapore conference on Thursday ITF general secretary Stephen Cotton said that its inspectors and affiliated unions had collected nearly $60m in unpaid wages in 2014. “So there are still elements of the industry that need to be tidied up,” he said.

The lion’s share, 81% of the $59.46m in unpaid wages was collected in Europe with some $48m. This reflects the fact the ITF has much higher number of inspectors in European countries than elsewhere in the world. A further 14% or $8.37m in unpaid wages was collected in Asia.

Cotton noted that more than 75% of the unpaid wages collected came from vessels that were not covered by ITF agreements through the International Bargaining Forum (IBF). Over 11,500 vessels are covered by IBF agreements.

Speaking to Seatrade Maritime News a union official said they had some concern that Greece’s financial woes could see increase in the number of cases of unpaid wages from Greek owned ships.