Port of Timaru (Photo: Government of New Zealand - CC BY-NC 3.0 NZ)
NEW ZEALAND
Wednesday, February 06, 2013, 04:00 (GMT + 9)
The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) is currently looking into allegations about suspicious work conditions aboard the Korean-flagged fishing vessel Sur Este 707, now docked in Timaru.
The investigation follows information provided by a Fishery Observer from the Ministry for Primary Industries, who observed possible issues with vessel safety, excessive hours of crew work and falsification of crew time records. There are 21 Indonesian crew members on the vessel.
Officers from Immigration New Zealand (INZ), the Labour Inspectorate and other agencies, including the Police and Maritime New Zealand (MNZ) visited the vessel this week. MNZ took immediate steps to ensure the vessel’s future safe operation.
INZ General Manager Steve Stuart attributes the alerts to more effective information sharing between government agencies following the Ministerial Inquiry into Foreign Charter Vessels (FCVs), and said that actions taken so far show a determination on the part of agencies to follow up on allegations in an organized manner.
“We take these allegations very seriously and we’ve co-ordinated our activities with other agencies to make sure they are fully investigated. The Ministry will not hesitate to take decisive action if the allegations are substantiated,” Stuart said.
“This could include reviewing the status of the Approval in Principle to recruit foreign crew which was granted to the New Zealand charter party in December last year,” he continued.
MBIE and other agencies are moving to enact the recommendations of the Ministerial Inquiry as soon as possible.
The vessel in question, Sur Este 707, is chartered by NZ company South East Resources (2001) Ltd, which also operates two more Korean charters, Sur Este 700 and 709. They are all owned by South Korea-based Dong Nam Company Ltd, The Press reports.
In May 2012, NZ’s government announced that all foreign-owned vessels operating in NZ territorial waters will be reflagged to New Zealand after a transition period of four years, so that they will be subject to the full range of New Zealand law, applicable to employment relations and workplace health and safety law, for example.
During the transition period, foreign crew members will be protected with stronger monitoring and enforcement, including more strict independent audits of the NZ charter parties, safety monitoring on vessels and increased and improved on-board observer coverage.
In late September 2012, a judge in Christchurch District Court sentenced four Korean crew members of the fishing vessel Oyang 75 over charges of misreporting and illegal dumping of hoki.
Related article:
- Four Korean crew fined over fish dumping