The wage agreements of the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) will now apply to Greek-flagged, oceangoing vessels as well.
On 28 July, Greece’s parliament passed a legislative amendment that allows shipowners to offer the international union's labour contracts to their seafarers, up to the rank of second mate or third engineer.
Greek shipping pride
The government in Athens expects the move to help arrest the long decline of Greece’s flag and encourage its shipping community — the world’s biggest — to offer more jobs to locals.
The ITF will effectively undercut the national labour agreements by Greek seafarers’ union PNO, which are negotiated separately and generally envisage higher wages for seafarers. The PNO agreements remain in force but are no longer exclusive.
“We’re boosting the competitiveness of Greece’s dwindling ship registry and we’re attracting young, unemployed Greeks, who are desperate for a job in merchant shipping,” shipping minister Yiannis Plakiotakis said, when telling parliament to defend the measure over the protests of leftist opposition lawmakers.
Greece’s economic crisis between 2010 and 2018 has helped boost maritime employment, which has climbed to 18,000 seafarers in the period. However, Plakiotakis said that remains a far cry from the 70,000 employed in the industry back in the 1970s.
The decline of local seafarers also brought the Greek flag down with it. The share of Greek-owned ships flying their own country’s flag has plummeted to 12% from 42% in the mid-1990s, Plakiotakis added.
Greek officers working under PNO contracts earn more than their counterparts under ITF contracts, which usually apply to vessels flying flags of convenience (FOCs).
A third engineer on board a Greek-flagged vessel is earning a basic monthly salary of €1,233 ($1,450) per month. On ITF rates, an officer of the same rank earns a basic $1,049 per month.
That is also why the vast majority of Greek mariners prefer to be employed on a Greek-flagged vessel, according to the country's labour statistics.
Wage differential
The Union of Greek Shipowners (UGS) has been lobbying government for years to smooth out the wage differential. Couched under the more neutral-sounding term of “boosting the competitiveness” of the Greek flag, shipping ministers have long been looking at changes to crewing and labour rules.
The UGS finally swayed Greece's ruling, conservative New Democracy, which has been making no bones about its pro-business orientation since assuming power a year ago.
Last week’s legislation also grants shipowners another longstanding demand: that they be able to employ a non-Greek master on board a Greek-flag vessel, if a local is not available.
“We’ve been discussing about these things for decades, but nobody had the political courage so far to stare reality in the face,” Plakiotakis said.
The opposition was quick to denounce the change.
A lawmaker of the main opposition Syriza party questioned whether the prospect of earning less money would really encourage young Greeks to work at sea.
One senior shipping executive shares such concerns.
“I’m afraid we might really be sending the wrong signal to youths considering becoming junior officers,” he said.
Others are incensed at the law because it effectively abolishes PNO's vital role of being the sole workers' organisation authorised to bargain collective wage agreements for the ships under Greek authority.
"It's a premeditated crime,” said three maritime labour unions, in which Greece’s Communist Party (KKE) is influential. The message came as part of a warning of imminent strikes.
However, a large part of PNO’s authority is undermined from within. Internal strife is partly to blame as to why the union has not negotiated a single wage agreement in 10 years.
PNO chairman Yiannis Halas, who has been leading the union for 27 years, has struck back at his critics, accusing them of collusion with shipowners.
Emboldened by the labour union's division, the government directly intervened in the squabble. The new law passed last week considerably tightens eligibility criteria for unionisation in shipping, setting a maximum three terms for the PNO president and an age limit of 72 for its senior executives.
Halas, who has been leading the PNO since 1993, fails on both grounds.
