Danish Shipping and the Marine Transport Workers’ Trade Union of Ukraine (MTWTU) signed a collective agreement covering, as of October 1 and onwards, Ukrainian officers on ships under the Danish International Ship Register (DIS).
An agreement covering ordinary Ukrainian seafarers is also expected to be concluded in the near future.
The new collective agreement is the result of several months of thorough negotiations between the two parties. So far, only foreign seafarers from the Philippines and India have been covered by DIS.
“Today is a big day for Ukrainian seafarers and MTWTU. Our highly qualified seafarers will have access to decent level of salaries and compensations, a wide range of Union services, legal support, medical compensations, educational and social initiatives. Ukrainian seafarers will be well represented even in times of heaviest challenge,” said Oleg Grygoriuk, Chairman of MTWTU.
Anne Windfeldt Trolle, Director of Labour Market, Recruitment, and Education at Danish Shipping, stated: “I am very pleased that we have been able to sign an agreement with our Ukrainian partners, bringing stability to the conditions of Ukrainian seafarers on DIS ships. I look forward to, in the near future, also having ordinary Ukrainian seafarers covered by the collective agreement. I am very proud that we have managed to keep so many Ukrainian seafarers employed during a very difficult time for Ukraine.”
It’s worth mentioning that, according to Danish Shipping, a couple of hundreds of Ukrainian seafarers are now working on ships under the Danish International Ship Register.
Danish Shipping represents the industry’s interests as a trade organisation and acts as an employers’ organisation for its members, which include over 90 shipping companies and offshore companies.
Half of the members have ships under the Danish flag, while the other half, the associate member shipping companies, operate their activities from Denmark without having ships under the Danish flag.
