A 4.5% pay rise has been agreed under shipping’s largest collective bargaining employment agreement for seafarers.
A 3% pay rise will kick in on 1 January, followed by an additional 1.5% in January 2023, for seafarers employed under International Bargaining Forum (IBF) wage agreements.
In a joint statement the International Transport Worker’s Federation and the employers' representative the Joint Negotiating Group (JNG) said that the deal “recognised the sacrifices made by seafarers during the pandemic”.
Hundreds of thousands of seafarers have been forced to work beyond their contracted period because of quarantine and travel restrictions to stop the spread of coronavirus.
“The pay agreement locks in stability in the seafarer wage market going forward, allowing employers to better weather the volatilities in demand being experienced in various shipping markets since 2020,” JNG chairman Thoshihito Inoue said.
ITF president and dockers section chair Paddy Crumlin said the agreement is an important outcome, both for seafarers and for maritime workers more broadly.
Commitment
“It shows commitment from reputable employers to the continued global collective bargaining process that is essential for the global supply chain,” he said.
The JNG and ITF were originally scheduled to negotiate new pay terms last year for the current agreement, which was due to expire at the end of 2022. The talks were postponed because of the pandemic and the new agreement will now run to the end of 2023.
But the postponement left seafarers with IBF contracts without a pay rise during 2021.
The latest round of talks were also made more difficult because they came at a time when the containership operators were announcing record profits and the dry bulk market saw a dramatic upturn. However, the tanker market has continued to struggle.
Employers have won one concession, increasing their rebate from the ITF Welfare Fund to 20%.
ITF Seafarers' Section chair David Heindel said: “We are proud we have managed to deliver increases to seafarers’ income. Their daily sacrifices to keep supply chains moving, delivering the goods critical to our recovery to billions of consumers and businesses is recognised,”
