Union inspector ‘feared for his life’ following ship pay dispute

AN Irish trade union inspector and his British colleague feared for their lives and were forced to barricade themselves and the Russian crew of a ship into a section of the vessel after a dispute with the ship’s owners.

The two inspectors, Ken Fleming and Bill Anderson of the International Transport Federation, boarded the Merchant Brilliant, owned by ADG Shipmanagement, at the request of the 20-man crew who had refused to sail from Belfast without the union representation.

It was the third incident in Irish waters involving a ship owned by ADG in the space of only a few months.

The crew intended to leave Belfast and sail the vessel to Heysham, under protest, at the request of Norfolk Lines, which had chartered the vessel for its Ro-Ro freight service. The crew are owed $200,000 (€150,000) in arrears.

They only agreed to sail on condition that Mr Fleming accompanied them and ensured they were paid in Heysham.

However, on arrival in Heysham on Monday Norfolk Lines took the ship off charter and the Harbour Master insisted it leave port to make way for other vessels. Speaking from the vessel, Mr Fleming said that on Monday night the owners of the ship became very aggressive and started threatening both the crew and the inspectors.

“There were no locks on the doors of the cabin and we actually used the furniture to barricade the door and advised the crew to do the same,” said Ken Fleming.

He said the ship’s owners demanded the seamen rip up the agreement they signed giving Mr Fleming power of attorney to have the vessel seized if payment of the arrears was not made.

The International Transport Federation yesterday made an application to the Admiralty Marshall in England to have the Merchant Brilliant arrested.

However, later in the day the company agreed to pay the monies to the seafarers according to the ITF claim.

“However, they have convinced seven seafarers onboard by whatever means not to accept or claim the money,” said Ken Fleming.

He said the fear was that if they were left onboard the money would be taken off them once the ITF was off the boat.

Last December, the Merchant Brilliant was detained in Dublin port by the Admiralty Court for refusing to pay the crew similar amounts due in arrears. The money was eventually paid to the crew by ADG Ship management to have the vessel released.

Some of the crew have said since that they were forced to hand back the arrears. The ship was then switched to the Belfast-Heysham run.