THE International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) have called on the Australian Prime Minister to do the “right thing” for the thousands of seafarers stranded on cruise vessels drifting off the coast of Australia.

On March 29, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said it was “important that Australia does the right thing about those who have fallen into our care to ensure that I can say with great moral authority that Australians are doing the right thing, and we would ask you to do the right thing".

ITF president Paddy Crumlin today wrote to Prime Minister Scott Morrison appealing to him to show the same humanity to the men and women working onboard the cruise ships off the coast of Australia as he has expressed needs to be shown to the cruise passengers, and the same humanity that the US Government has offered Australians being repatriated from Florida in the next 24 to 48 hours.

It is estimated that around 314 out of 385 cruise ships that are owned and operated by the major cruise lines are currently laid up.

Many of the vessels have hundreds of seafarers onboard as governments refuse to allow them to disembark and transit through their ports and airports for repatriation. This is despite guarantees from cruise lines that they will charter flights to get the seafarers home.

Over 80 percent of the world's cruise ships are covered by an ITF agreement. ITF affiliated seafarers’ unions have been working with the ITF and its social partners to get the seafarers repatriated, but travel and port restrictions that governments have implemented have made this impossible with no solution currently in sight.

“This is not a sustainable situation,” said ITF Cruise Ship Task Force chair Johan Øyen. "Seafarers have the right to be treated with the same decency and dignity as everyone else.

"Governments have to ‘do the right thing’ and ensure that the thousands of men and women that have provided their services to the world’s cruise passengers are shown the same compassion and be allowed to return home.”

About the ITF

The International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF) is a democratic global union federation of 665 transport workers trade unions representing 20 million workers in 147 countries. The ITF works to improve the lives of transport workers globally, encouraging and organising international solidarity among its network of affiliates. The ITF represents the interests of transport workers' unions in bodies that take decisions affecting jobs, employment conditions and safety in the transport industry.

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A FLAW in the Federal Government’s $1.6 billion package to provide free childcare services during the coronavirus pandemic could force the closure of council-run childcare services, forcing tens of thousands of families to scramble for new care arrangements, the United Services Union has warned.

While for-profit centres are eligible for the $1,500 per fortnight JobKeeper payment for each staff member, in addition to the new childcare funding, local government is not eligible for that money, leaving a massive budget hole.

Without access to the JobKeeper payment, the funding package fails to cover the costs of keeping childcare centres open, forcing councils to either pump millions of dollars from ratepayers into the services or close their doors.

The USU, which represents local government employees in NSW, is urging the Federal Government to immediately address the design flaw by ensuring council’s can access the funding needed to keep childcare centres operating during the COVID-19 crisis.

“There is no point announcing a $1.6 billion childcare package that promises essential workers that childcare services will be free if a major flaw in the funding model means centres in communities across the country will still be forced to close their doors,” USU general secretary Graeme Kelly said.

“The way this funding model works is by combining with the JobKeeper subsidy, which is being paid to commercial childcare operators, to cover the full costs of keeping centres open.

“But if the Federal Government fails to provide that $1,500 a fortnight payment to cover staff wages at council-run centres, there simply won’t be enough money to keep the services open, forcing parents to scramble to move their children elsewhere.

“Local Government is the largest provider of early childhood education and childcare services in NSW, caring for tens of thousands of children, yet all these services remain at imminent threat of closure.”

Mr Kelly said if the Federal Government failed to act then the NSW Government should intervene to provide the funding needed.

“The local government sector has been left out of much of the Federal Government’s stimulus funding, putting the viability of many community services at risk and threatening thousands of jobs,” he said.

“If the Federal Government continues to exclude the sector from key stimulus measures, in particular the $130 billion JobKeeper program, the NSW Government must act to ensure its ongoing viability.”

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THE Australian Lottery and Newsagents Association (ALNA) is urging landlords to step up and create arrangements with their retailers that properly acknowledge the significant reductions in turnover occurring, as the Federal Government has done.

Despite newsagents, regarded an essential service, asking for sensible rent relief, there has been no attempt to do their part in making sure tenants can survive to continue paying rent in the long-term.

ALNA CEO Ben Kearney said, “We are imploring landlords to work with us on this to find a sensible solution now. This remains the big piece of the puzzle that is still unresolved and urgently required to make it possible for small businesses to go into a semi-hibernation state while very prudently maintaining essential services during the crisis and to not lose the capacity to come out the other side.”

Mr Kearney said there were more than 4000 lottery retailers and newsagents in Australia. They are an important and trusted part of Australian communities and approximately 35 percent of the Australian population visit these small businesses at least once a week (source - Retail Doctor Group Insights study).

“Their biggest immediate concern now to surviving this crisis, is their financial capacity to continue to pay rent to their landlords during the crisis," Mr Kearney said. "Many are reporting that they will have limited capacity to continue to pay rent over the several months it may now take before any recovery in customer visitation occurs after social restrictions are lifted.

“When they have reached out to landlords and their representatives as almost all have, and as the Prime Minister has suggested they do, to have a conversation about sensible rent relief and abatement to meet the requirements of their business in surviving this crisis and that is no fault of their own, they are consistently and overwhelmingly met with delay and obfuscation.”

Responses from landlords have included landlords asking tenants to sign a confidentiality agreement before any discussions can occur, delaying tactics, opportunistically cashing in bank guarantees, and chasing April invoices.

“The current COVID-19 pandemic is impacting our small retailers’ businesses in a significant way. Newsagents and lottery agents are not businesses with huge financial capacity or large margins. They are generally mums and dads, family enterprises, and first-generation Australians, who are having a go and working hard to make a success of their business."

Consequently, ALNA has written to the Shopping Centre Council of Australia to ask its industry to step up to support its tenants who can with immediate short-term assistance continue to provide good long-term income.

“We are asking for landlords to show some leadership and to genuinely partner with their commercial tenants, to help see them through this crisis by entering immediate dialogue and delivering rapid outcomes," Mr Kearney said.

"We are not asking them to go out of business, but to work on a common sense solution and the only reasonable option for both their businesses and their tenants."

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THREE container ships that departed foreign ports in recent days are due to dock in Darwin this week, despite failing to undertake the 14 day coronavirus quarantine period, posing a clear health risk to workers and the community.

Singapore-flagged Kota Harum, which departed Hong Kong on March 25, will dock in Darwin tomorrow morning (April 3) after just eight days at sea. The Cyprus-flagged Antung is also due to arrive on Friday after visiting Indonesia on March 28 and East Timor on April 1. The Liberia-flagged ANL Dili Trader, which departed Singapore on March 25, is due to dock on Saturday.

These arrivals, in the most extreme case just two days after departing a foreign port, follow the arrival of the Chinese container vessel Xin Da Lian in Melbourne. Wharfies were stood down after refusing to unload that ship because it had failed to complete a 14-day quarantine period after leaving Taiwan on March 19.

Commercial vessels continue to dock in Australian ports without crew members undertaking 14 days isolation — as is required by all other travellers — despite clear COVID-19 guidelines to the maritime industry from the Health Department that all vessels should undertake it if arriving from another country.

The Maritime Union of Australia said wharfies understood their important role during the current pandemic, but refused to stand by while foreign vessels were allowed to breach essential measures aimed at preventing the spread of COVID-19 in the community.

“We already know that a failure to enforce biosecurity measures on cruise ships has led to the largest cluster of COVID-19 cases in Australia, causing several deaths and hundreds of illnesses,” MUA national secretary Paddy Crumlin said.

“The arrival of these three vessels — in the most extreme case less than two days after being in a foreign port — threatens to repeat that debacle by exposing local workers, and through them the broader community, to another outbreak.

“It is outrageous that at a time when people are being told to stay in their homes, to not even take their kids to the park, that the Australian Government is continuing to allow foreign vessels to unload in our ports without undertaking a 14 day quarantine period.

“Wharfies are simply demanding that the Health Department’s guidelines be enforced to prevent the spread of coronavirus on the waterfront, which means ensuring all vessels undertake a 14 day isolation period after leaving their last foreign port before docking in Australia.

“If there is a COVID-19 outbreak on the waterfront, it could have devastating impacts, not only to the health of workers, but on the supply chains that provide 98 per cent of Australia’s imports, including medical supplies, food, and household goods.

“That is why the union developed a maritime industry framework based on expert health advice and international best practice, but some stevedores are refusing to meet or implement those measures, instead resorting to intimidation and threats to force unsafe practices on workers.”

MUA Northern Territory deputy branch secretary, and national Indigenous officer, Thomas Mayor said the failure to quarantine vessels arriving in Darwin and other ports close to Indigenous communities could have devastating consequences.

“Remote Indigenous communities are particularly vulnerable, given the large numbers of people with chronic health conditions, which is why the Northern Territory cannot relax strict measures to prevent an outbreak of COVID-19 at the port,” Mr Mayor said.

“The arrival of these three vessels at Darwin Port, with no quarantine measures, threatens to spread this deadly virus into our community.

“The Australian and Territory Governments should be doing everything possible to prevent the foreseeable risk of coronavirus arriving on commercial vessels, including through the enforcement of strict 14-day quarantine periods, and proactive testing of crew members on international vessels before work commences on them.

“This should be coupled with measures on the wharves that protect local workers, including physical distancing measures, strong hygiene, cleaning, and appropriate personal protective equipment.”

More information:

Health Department COVID-19 guidelines for the marine industry: https://www.mua.org.au/sites/mua.org.au/files/coronavirus-covid-19-information-for-the-marine-industry_1.pdf

COVID-19 Maritime Industry Framework: https://www.mua.org.au/news/covid-19-maritime-industry-framework

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