“One Thing to Know Unions Exist — Another to Understand Their Power”

Ukrainian seafarers work on ships all over the world. Staying for a long time hundreds of thousands of miles away from home and relatives; doing gruelling work to support their families, maritime workers conquer numerous challenges. Untimely payment of wages, unfair working conditions, delayed repatriation, psychological pressure or even bullying on board are part of the real-life situations that seafarers unfortunately continue to face.

And ITF inspectors are the first to come to their rescue. In order to tell more about this extremely important work, the Marine Transport Workers' Trade Union of Ukraine (MTWTU) initiated a series of interviews with inspectors of the International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF). These are the people who daily interact with crews, inspect ships, resolve complex conflicts — and know exactly how seafarers actually live and what they continue to struggle with.

This series of conversations aims to give a voice to those who every minute, every hour and every day stand up for justice in the maritime industry. We strive not only to raise awareness of the community about the mechanisms for protecting labour rights, but also to highlight the real stories behind the words "support" and "solidarity".

This time, our speaker was Sven Hemme, ITF Coordinator for Germany (on behalf of ver.di). His daily activities include managing a team of four inspectors and working directly on board ships: inspecting ships, checking seafarers' living and working conditions, monitoring the enforcement and compliance with сollective bargaining agreements. In this interview, he shares his experience and talks about current trends in the protection of labour rights at sea.

How have seafarers' claims changed in recent years? What new problems are emerging?

Beginning with the Covid-19 pandemic, the problems or the cases reported by seafarers shifted a bit toward shore leave and repatriation issues.

Besides the fact that repatriation nowadays is as easy as before, more or less, the problem of shore leave continues to be part of our tasks. Therefore, we receive many claims from seafarers that “in this port, we are not allowed to take shore leave.”

In one particular region of Germany, even the authorities tried to block shore leave — not just the owners or whoever. We are constantly dealing with it.

Otherwise, our problems are back to questions like “I didn’t get enough overtime payment,” or “my wages are not being paid,” and things like that.

In general, I would say it’s more or less back to work as usual — plus an increased number of shore leave cases.

How often do Ukrainian seafarers contact ITF inspectors? How is it going?

With Ukrainian seafarers, as with all other nationalities, there's no general rule. Especially after the struggles of the war in the beginning, it's also back to a regular level. If we get claims from Ukrainians nowadays, it's about wages, or if a company is delaying repatriation, which is no longer linked to transportation problems.

We fortunately still have many Ukrainians, serving on board of worldwide cargo ships. Of course, we get regular claims from Ukrainians, but let’s say, due to the level of their education, they are not the ones to complain that easily. I think other nationalities, depending on their rank on board, may be quicker to complain about conditions.

In my opinion, Ukrainian seafarers are a tough bunch, and it takes a while until they complain. In the beginning, I think, they still hope they can solve all problems themselves.

What are the most difficult cases you had to deal with in your work involving Ukrainian seafarers?

In general, it’s problems on board ships not covered by ITF, because we lack the authority or binding contracts to push the company, and access problems to the ships may be an issue.

For me, typically, the most difficult complaints or cases are about day-to-day life on board, especially regarding bullying and harassment.

Because different nationalities may have struggles living and working with each other, because both sides may have different understandings — maybe even different ethics behind them. So, it’s always tough to dig deeper into those cases, because usually it’s not that one side is guilty and the other is always good. It’s more or less about communication and understanding each other.

So, if you get cases like this, I always deem it tricky.

How aware are they of the activities of MTWTU and ITF?

In general, I've got the feeling that Ukrainian seafarers do have a fair understanding of the ITF — what the ITF is doing and how unions can help. The problem always is to link their understanding of the rights coming from union work with their duties to join unions.

So, many years ago, there was an organising campaign for MTWTU. And if I remember that correctly, people still had old views about the problems of union work in, for example, Ukraine.
And so, the way your union is currently going — establishing education, establishing healthcare, things like this — this may help people to understand that a union is not just a body taking care of things, but with the help and support of members, can get stronger and change more things.

And I would hardly deem it necessary to follow this path further, and to put even more effort into educational work, especially union awareness. Because, it's one thing to know that unions exist and do help, but it's another thing to understand that only strong unions, which include lots of members, may have the power to raise their voices effectively.

What steps can be taken to improve the situation of bullying, harassment, and other cases?

In my understanding, it's also about education. So, people need to get more and more aware, and need to understand that different people, from different cultural backgrounds, may have a different understanding of things.

There was one situation on board — it was a master from an Eastern European country, and the crew was from Southeast Asia. But it can be linked to all problems you're facing on board. The master was shouting to the messman, "You need to clean it more properly, or I will kill you." So, it was just a harsh thing. But the seafarer was afraid he could lose his life and was not capable of doing his job anymore.

When I talked to the master, he was actually being funny. But with humour, maybe people from our part of the world can deal more easily, because we are deeply into irony or sarcasm. His subordinate did not take it as a joke. And the master was actually looking at me like, “Damn it, my family always tells me that I need to be a bit more friendly.”

This is just an example, that understanding of different ethics and different cultural backgrounds may help to have a better understanding on board.

What advice can you give seafarers to minimise the risks and protect themselves from violations?

My first thing is: make sure that you know the rules, that you know the CBA which is enforced on board.

If you have doubts, contact your union. Ask the questions that are going through your mind prior to letting your head explode or becoming depressed, or things like that.

So make sure you know your rights, make sure you know about unions, and contact the unions in case you have troubles quite early — not when it's already too late.