Seafarers working on the 2500 foreign-registered freight ships that enter the Port of Newcastle each year are being robbed an estimated $25million a year, new research has found.
The Australia Institute report Robbed At Sea found some seafarers are getting paid as little as $2 an hour as a result of underpayment, the withholding of entitlements and the poor enforcement of Australian labour standards.
The report used ten years' data gleaned from the International Transport Workers' Federation's (ITF) Australian Inspectorate, which conducted almost 5,000 inspections in Australian ports between 2012 and 2022.
It found 70 per cent of ships failed to meet minimum standards for wage payment and estimated foreign seafarers were being underpaid $65million annually.
"This (report) shines a light into a dark corner of Australia's supply chain," Maritime Union of Australia Newcastle Branch Secretary Glen Williams said.
"We are exploiting foreign workers who have no labour rights in the countries they come from and this report shows that when they work in this country they don't have any labour rights either.
"These guys are some of the most exploited workers on the planet. They are part of the Australian supply chain and this highlights how much wage theft is going on along our coastline."
The report found large gaps between international and domestic labour standards governing international shipping: "When combined with almost non-existent regulation of labour standards on ships involved in international trading, and an uncertain and under-resourced domestic labour standards regulatory system, seafarers are exposed to widespread abuse."
Mr Williams estimated only 2.5 per cent of the 2500 foreign-registered freight ships that entered the Port of Newcastle each year were subject to inspection.
Evidence of wage theft was found on 70 per cent of those ships.
"The Australian Maritime Safety Authority needs to be resourced and have people available to go down and do the inspections. They are doing their best but they don't have enough resources to be able to inspect every ship and ensure the workers on those vessels are being paid correctly," Mr Williams said.
The report says seafarers on Flag of Convenience-registered vessels usually come from low-wage developing countries with limited power to resist exploitation by unethical ship owners.
The MUA has backed calls for stronger rules in countries like Australia to protect vulnerable workers.
The report also identifies several loopholes and enforcement failures that allow shipowners to routinely exploit seafarers, even when delivering cargo from one Australian port to another.
The ITF's Australian Coordinator, Ian Bray, said that the recoveries and revelations captured by the report represented the "tip of the iceberg".
"Ripping off workers' wages is usually indicative of broader issues and greater abuses. If a boss is willing to systematically steal their crews' wages, you can be sure there are other rorts going on," he said.
"Endemic wage theft within the international shipping sector is a massive problem, but there is clearly a disconnect between the various regulatory agencies and various port authorities when it comes to the enforcement of maritime labour standards. We hope these will be quickly addressed so that these abuses are identified, interrupted and prevented."
The report makes 10 specific recommendations aimed at reducing the incidence of wage theft from international seafarers in Australian waters.
These include closing a current legal loophole that allows foreign-registered ships to conduct two trips between Australian ports without needing to respect the Fair Work Act or the Seagoing Industry Award, as well as strengthening inspection resources for the Australian Maritime Safety Authority and the Fair Work Ombudsman to ensure that existing rules are better respected.
Mr Bray called on federal government agencies to act on the issues raised in the report and proactively enforce breaches of labour laws.
"The exploitation and mistreatment of these workers by international shipping companies should be of serious concern to every Australian business and consumer," he said.
The systematic theft of seafarers' wages and the mistreatment of a vulnerable, invisible workforce is a disgrace to our stated Australian values of fairness and decency in the workplace for everyone."
Maritime Union of Australia national secretary Paddy Crumlin said it was hoped the new federal government's commitment to establish a strategic fleet of Australian-flagged and Australian-crewed vessels would improve the standards for all seafarers visiting Australian ports.
"The systematic misconduct and abuse by these companies demonstrates how urgent the need for intervention has become," Mr Crumlin said.
"The ITF has been policing and enforcing the maritime labour standards of this country against a backdrop of intransigence and disinterest from the former Liberal Government, as well as disinformation and obfuscation by industry PR representatives such as Shipping Australia Limited."
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