Move Logistics is defending the foreign crewing of its trans-Tasman ship, which the Maritime Union says is denying New Zealand seafarers employment opportunity and being done to save money.
The Atlas Wind started its operations in January last year with the executive director at the time saying it would consider opportunities for New Zealand crew members.
The Atlas Wind is a Vanuatu-flagged vessel. The crew is sourced by the offshore agent OSM Thome, and therefore not eligible to join the New Zealand or Australia maritime union or be covered under either country’s worksafe or employment laws.
Union national secretary Craig Harrison said the company appeared to be circumventing local laws.
“It should be New Zealanders working that vessel but the company’s well aware of New Zealand law … so any ship that’s a foreign ship can trade on our coasts, as long as it’s not on the coast for more than 28 days, and the cargo is incidental on the voyage.
“So then it comes down to someone to take an illegal argument and saying, well is what you’re doing incidental or are you really trying to circumvent the law?”
However, Move chief executive Craig Evans said the service offered was not primarily coastal shipping and the foreign flag was appropriate.
“Atlas Wind is flagged in Vanuatu. This allows us to meet and carry out our primary international services across various international jurisdictions.
“Primarily the Atlas Wind provides trans-Tasman international services, not coastal New Zealand.”
The Maritime Act allows foreign vessels to carry domestic cargo if they are travelling that way anyway due to their international cargo movement commitments.
The company’s cornerstone customer is fish feed company BioMar Australia, based in Tasmania, which sends its stock to New Zealand via regional ports including Nelson, Timaru, New Plymouth, and Bluff. It sometimes stops at other east coast ports in Australia – currently it is en route to Brisbane.
But Harrison questioned the application of the “incidental” carriage of domestic cargo.
He said the regulator, Maritime NZ, needed to take a closer look at whether the law was being followed.
“[Move] will be relying on ‘well, someone’s got to take us to task’ but it’s never really happened.
“It really should be the regulator or state, or someone like a union or a shipping company saying, ‘hey, you’re not abiding by the rules …’ but then you’ve got to resource yourself legally for what is a fairly big argument.”
He said the operation meant there was little oversight concerning the workers’ wages and conditions, but Evans said the crewing agent was compliant with global best practice.
“OSM is Maritime Labour Convention certified. The convention governs the minimum requirement for seafarers to work on board a vessel and the conditions of employment, accommodation, food, and catering onboard, recreational facilities, social security protection and financial security.”
Flag of convenience
A flag of convenience ship is one that flies the flag of a country other than the country of ownership.
The International Transport Workers Federation, which acts as a union for crew working on such ships, has long held the position that there should be a genuine link between the real owner of a vessel and the flag the vessel flies, in accordance with the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.
The Maritime Union has recently been working with the federation with respect to Atlas Wind, in an effort to have New Zealand crew onboard.
Harrison said using a foreign crew also denied New Zealanders opportunities to train and work.
“It’s a missed opportunity … if you don’t train and support young people into the industry, then the industry is going to be in a bad state. So you’d have to say the shipping companies are making substantial money out of what they’re doing so they should be investing back into New Zealand just to support and grow the industry.”
Concern over foreign vessels running coastal shipping routes, who don’t have to abide by New Zealand’s (usually) stricter employment laws and higher pay rates, has long been a problem for the union, which says it undercuts local operators.
Harrison said section 198 of the Maritime Act, which provided the exemptions for foreign vessels to operate, was not being policed properly.
Waka Kotahi recently commissioned a series of reports on the local shipping industry which found the playing field for international and domestic operators was uneven and agreed section 198 was problematic.
“There appear to be obvious and hidden subsidies, distorting the level playing field”, the first report from May 2021 noted.
This included a requirement for domestic coastal shipping operators to pay emissions trading scheme levies that were not imposed on competing international carriers, competitive access to fuel as well as access to a dry dock for maintenance – both of which were easier to access for international operators.
The concluding report recommended tightening up section 198 as well as including “more explicit rules for exemptions” and “being more strict on applying section 198 which allows a foreign ship to carry any coastal cargo if it is demise chartered and the crew is employed under New Zealand law, rather than giving of exemptions enabling these provisions to be side-stepped”.
Move was one of four entities chosen by Waka Kotahi and given funding to accelerate plans for coastal shipping in New Zealand.
However, it recently cancelled its plan for a new $12m methanol-capable roll-on-roll-off vessel because it couldn’t be built to load cargo at various smaller ports in certain weather and tidal conditions.
Evans said the funding from the Government for this project had been for its design and feasibility.
“Subsequently the programme was ended which accounted the first parcel of funding. We are currently working with the contracting party in full transparency with Waka Kotahi to reconcile works completed against the initial payment released to the contractor. This reconciliation continues.”
He said had the vessel made it to operation as a full-time New Zealand coastal service, all obligations to crew it with New Zealand seafarers would have been met.
