A bulk carrier ship has been detained in Newcastle after crew members unlashed their cargo while waiting to enter the port.
The Hong Kong-based ship Orient Becrux was placed under port state control when Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) surveyors boarded the ship at noon on Tuesday 27 January.
International Transport Workers Federation coordinator Dean Summers said the Filipino crew members had been illegally made to unlash cargo of 300 rail cars, before the ship arrived in port.
Summers said the actions of the crew breached the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) convention, however AMSA did not lay any charges against the Hong Kong-based ship’s operators, Pacific Basin.
It was alleged the crew were forced to unlash the cargo by charter company Pacific Basin, however this was incorrect according to a spokeperson for the operator who said neither the operator nor the owners of the ship had directed the crew to carry out such actions.
The spokesman said as a charter vessel the Orient Becrux had not been crewed by Pacific Basin, who were not directly in charge of the crew, and that an email sent from ITF to the ship's owners one wekk ago had explicitly stated the crew would not be permitted to unlash cargo.
"The crew took this into their own hands, and when we enquired why, we were told the master was keen to be efficient," the spokesman said.
"The master made a judgement call that it was safe to unlash the cargo while waiting to berth at the Port of Newcastle.
"This goes against everything we stand for: We take our social commitments and responsibilities to the crew very seriously."
In accordance with Australian Health and Safety law and section 94 of the Navigation Act, cargo may only be unlashed by qualified Australian stevedores once the ship is berthed in port, with a charge for those services and moving the cargo.
“If the shipowner chooses to unlash illegally then that work is not available, but that’s only peripheral work, the expensive part is getting the machinery to lift cargo on and off the ship, it really was nickel and dime stuff,” Summers said.
AMSA said an audit was conducted by Nippon Kaiji Kyokai, the issuing authority for the Safety Management Certificate and the ship’s Classification Society, and corrective action regarding ship board procedures and cargo securing was required.
According to Summers the ship’s crew had to convince AMSA that they would review and audit all their safety management systems before being released from detention at 10.30pm on Tuesday night.
“The next time that ship comes back to an Australian port, whatever terms they came to, they’ll have to let AMSA know they’ve done that, and the penalty for being a repeat offender could be a ban on their ships coming to Australian ports.”
Summers said the crew was put in jeopardy by their actions.
“They were lucky there was no major incident,” Summers said.
“In a worst-case scenario, the shifting cargo could have caused the ship to sink by compromising its stability.”
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