Published: 14 Jan 2016
The ITF (International Transport Workers’ Federation) has again questioned the behaviour of Alcoa as apparent non-payment of wages on one of the vessels it uses has been detected just a day after the MV Portland was spirited away from its Australian port (see http://goo.gl/CCXqWg)
ITF seafarers’ section chair Dave Heindel stated: “The ITF is investigating apparent non-payment of crew on the Gold River, which arrived right after the MV Portland was forcibly removed and sailed off for destruction. This again raises questions about the company’s probity and that of the companies to which it’s handing shipping contracts. Alcoa have tried to justify the scrapping of the Portland as a matter of competition and reducing costs. If not paying ships’ crews is how costs are to be cut, then the company has some serious explaining to do, not just to its crews, but to the Australian people and authorities too.”
