Globalised shipping "torpedoed" by court

[Grant Lee <grantlee@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

smh.com.au - The Sydney Morning HeraldBy John Garnaut

August 8, 2003

Paying foreign shipping crews foreign wages while working Australian waters,
a cost-cutting scheme defended by the Howard Government, was sinking fast
after a union victory yesterday.

In a unanimous decision, the High Court ruled that two Canadian-controlled,
Bahamas-registered and Ukrainian-crewed ships working in domestic waters
fall under the jurisdiction of an Australian tribunal.

The Australian Industrial Relations Commission may now consider an
application for the crews of the cement cargo vessel CSL Pacific to be
protected by Australian pay and conditions.

If the commission accepts the application - which lawyers yesterday said was
likely - the ship's owner, CSL Group, could be forced to lift wages for its
foreign workers from $19,600 to the local rate of $52,100 while carting
cargo between domestic ports.

* * * *

CSL bought the two ships from the Government-owned shipping line ANL.
The decision is the climax in a long-running controversy involving Canadian
politics, Caribbean tax havens and international wage and safety standards.

The CSL Group was owned by Paul Martin, a controversial former Canadian
finance minister before he passed ownership to his sons earlier this year.

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Copyright  © 2003. The Sydney Morning Herald.