recovered wages

Thirteen Filipino seafarers have made it home after more than five months aboard an abandoned livestock carrier ship, the Yangtze Harmony, thanks to the intervention of the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF).  

The ship’s owners abandoned the vessel and its crew after the ship was arrested in October 2022 in Singapore over an unpaid fuel bill. That is when the shipowner also stopped paying the entire crew, leaving them without wages or a way to get home. By April, the crew were owed a massive USD $429,972. 

Thirteen Filipino seafarers have made it home after more than five months aboard an abandoned livestock carrier ship, the Yangtze Harmony, thanks to the intervention of the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF).  

The ship’s owners abandoned the vessel and its crew after the ship was arrested in October 2022 in Singapore over an unpaid fuel bill. That is when the shipowner also stopped paying the entire crew, leaving them without wages or a way to get home. By April, the crew were owed a massive USD $429,972. 

Seafarers stranded aboard a livestock carrier vessel abandoned off the Australian coast have finally been repaid their missing wages and repatriated home with the assistance of the International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF).

Four seafarers, with assistance from the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF), have seized a cargo ship off the port of Dakar in Senegal after months without pay and mounting danger to their lives.

In the face of meddling, obstruction, and brazen breaches of international law alongside the NCIG coal terminal at Kooragang Island this week, the International Transport Workers Federation (ITF) inspectorate has delivered justice for a crew of international seafarers aboard a coal ship operated by Orient Line Corp, headquartered in Japan.

Last year, union ship inspectors recovered more than USD $37 million in unpaid wages owed to seafarers, the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) has revealed in figures published today. 

The ITF’s 125 inspectors and coordinators completed 7,265 inspections in 2021 to support thousands of seafarers with wage claims and repatriation cases, despite Covid-19 restrictions preventing inspectors’ ability to board ships for much of the year.

A Philippines-based recruitment agency that unlawfully charged seafarers placement fees has had its licence suspended after the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) highlighted its illegal practices.

Seafarers’ groups have won the right to mandatory social connectivity for crews –including internet access – in updates to the Maritime Labour Convention 2006 (MLC), but are disappointed that shipowners and governments may seek to charge for it.

Twelve seafarers who have not been paid for more than nine months have been given a boost as the UAE Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure fined the ship’s manager 30,000 UAE Dirham (approximately USD$8000).

The master of a ship on which a container exploded into flames in July 2021 has still not been allowed to go home more than six months later. Neither he nor his crew have been paid since March 2021.