Elinor Cheason: Protecting seafarers’ rights as an ITF inspector

Elinor Cheason explains to Rob Coston how her background at sea and in the trade union movement led her to a new role – helping seafarers calling at ports in South Wales and the Southwest of England as an inspector for the International Transport Workers' Federation

Rob Coston (RC): How did you get into being an ITF inspector?

Elinor Cheason (EC): I started off in education, which didn't really suit me, and quite quickly moved to working onboard cruise ships. I then worked for a trade union in the education sector for a couple of years.

This role, is a lovely combination of my shipboard experience and trade union experience, coming together to do a job that I feel really passionate about!

RC: Were there things you witnessed onboard that made you passionate about helping seafarers?

EC: When I was onboard there were sometimes issues that weren't being dealt with in a way that the crew were comfortable with, and a couple of instances where colleagues unfortunately lost their jobs in situations that maybe weren't handled fairly.

Also, I found a lot of the crew weren't aware of their own employment rights. There were collective bargaining agreements in place, but nobody knew about them or where to go to get help.

That made me feel quite strongly about wanting to raise awareness and help solve problems.

RC: I suppose the role of ITF inspector lends itself very nicely to some of those things, like making people aware of their rights?

EC: It absolutely is!

An ITF inspector is a union official, engaged in the ITF flags of convenience campaign. I go onboard vessels to carry out inspections where I check on working and living conditions and wages, ensure ITF agreements are adhered to onboard vessels, speak with seafarers, and raise their awareness about things like their rights and collective agreements.

I give seafarers the opportunity to raise any concerns and assist them with complaints or issues, either during an inspection or if they get in touch independently.

RC: What do you do if somebody comes to you with a problem?

EC: It depends what the problem is! One of the really common ones is non-payment of overtime. And the way to resolve this is to calculate the difference between the hours the seafarer has worked and the hours they’ve been paid for. I’ll take that to the employer, and the end result is either payments in cash or the money being included in the next wage packet.

Another issue I see quite often is insufficient provisions onboard. Depending on how long the vessel is going to be in port I might request that an order is placed and documentation is sent to me to confirm that it's actually been delivered. In extreme circumstances, I might even take an officer to the supermarket with cash from the vessel to top up provisions and to make sure there's sufficient fresh food for varied and nutritious meals for their next voyage.

Another issue I've found recently is unequal pay for equal work, which is in contravention to the guidelines in the Maritime Labour Convention (MLC). This was occurring on a vessel I inspected recently. When I spoke with the employer about it, their response was, ‘Oh, AB1 is from one country, and AB2 is from another country, and our crewing agent in the second country charges a fee which we pass on to the seafarer.’ I said that's absolutely not acceptable and is a massive breach of international standards, and it needs to be rectified.

Once I explained it in those terms, they redrafted the second AB’s contract and refunded the fees they had deducted from their wages for the previous months.

RC: As an ITF inspector I know you typically deal with vessels registered with flags of convenience (FOCs), but are there particularly common offenders?

EC: While most of my work is with FOC vessels, issues absolutely can and do happen on all vessels.

However, I most often encounter issues on FOC vessels which don't have an ITF-approved collective bargaining agreement. I'd really recommend seafarers to have a look if the vessels they are planning to work on are covered by these agreements, because the employers that put them in place are showing that they're engaged with the working rights of their seafarers. They also provide a framework for decent working and living conditions.

RC: Is there anything else you'd recommend that seafarers do to protect themselves in the first instance?

EC: First, it’s really important to know what your rights are. It might sound kind of obvious, but when you get your employment contract, read it thoroughly and see what it says you're entitled to. Similarly, if there's a collective bargaining agreement onboard, read that through. They can be quite long and it might not be a super exciting read but it's really worthwhile just having in the back of your head what it is that your entitlements are so that if something happens – for example, if you become unwell – you have an idea of what it is that the company should be doing to support you. Likewise, it’s good to know what your MLC rights are – for example, by picking up the Nautilus guide on the subject.

It's also worth checking out any agencies you might be using with the ITF ShipBeSure website. It's got a list of known scams and things to look out for that should help you identify if someone's going to give you decent work.
I’d suggest using resources like the Paris MOU website, too. It's accessible to everyone and you can do inspection searches to see what the past deficiencies on a vessel have been – for example, you might see that there have been problems around non-payment of wages, which would be a serious red flag.

Finally, please download the ITF Seafarers app just in case you need it. It will help you get in touch with your closest ITF inspector when you need help.

Whatever your nationality, the best protection from mistreatment at sea is to join your local trade union. To find out more, visit itfseafarers.org/en/resources/trade-unions