Owners of three livestock carriers listed as abandoned last month on the website of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) said the entry is misleading and that their crews are being paid in full.

TradeWinds reported on 5 April that nearly 200 seafarers were reported as abandoned in different parts of the Atlantic by the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) and owed at least two months’ wages.

The vessels in question are the 40,035-gt Ghena (built 1984), 36,387-gt Bader III and 15,608-gt Zein I (both built 1978).

A lawyer for Hijazi & Ghoshen Co (H&G), the Jordan-based firm that directly owns the Bader III, as well as the other two ships at group level, acknowledged delays in crew payments.

However, he disputed that any of the ships had ever been abandoned in the legal sense of the Maritime Labour Convention (MLC), and said that full crew payment is forthcoming.

Speaking of the Bader III, lawyer Tim Cocks said: “We have received confirmation on 12 April from our clients that the Bahamas Maritime Authority (BMA) has accepted full payment of the crew so that the Bader III is now in full MLC compliance.

“We understand that the same is the case for the other two vessels, namely that there is now full compliance with all MLC requirements with respect to crew conditions and payments.”

Contacted by TradeWinds, a ITF representative disputed the company’s account for the Bader III, which is in Venezuela, saying the crew has only received promises of March wages but nothing in cash to date.

The Bader III was reflagged to Panama this month.

BMA managers did not respond to a request for comment.

According to the latest entries on the ILO website, the government of the Philippines has also made enquiries into the matter.

A Uruguayan naval official and local agents told Filipino diplomats that they could not confirm the Ghena as abandoned in Montevideo and the Zeina in Las Palmas, and that the ships are continuing to receive provisions.

Business as usual

Cocks said any delays in paying the crew have been “entirely explicable” and not due to “any plan to default or irresponsibility” on the part of the owners, citing the Covid-19 pandemic, as well as “certain other internal administration interruptions” and “inevitable currency transfer bank checks”.

H&G accused the ITF of waging “a sustained and vigorous campaign of attack” to “discredit” their vessels.

The company also urged the ITF, ILO and flag states to take into account that operating a livestock fleet required significantly higher levels of crew and stockmen for the care and welfare of the cargo.

“This sometimes means extreme difficulties, particularly in Covid times with crew transfers and movements,” he said.

He argued that payment delays therefore have occurred across the entire shipping industry.

In May 2021, the ITF reported the Ghena and the Bader III as abandoned again. Both cases were resolved by July and 148 seafarers on the two vessels received their wages in full.