Indonesian seamen go without protection

JAKARTA (JP): More than one thousand Indonesian sailors are currently working on foreign owned ships without the benefit of working agreements that would protect them from occupational complications that might arise.

The Secretary-General of the Indonesian Sailors Association, H. Djabaringin Harahap, said yesterday that the absence of a common agreement between the sailors and the shipping company creates difficulties for the sailors should they encounter any contractual disputes or other problems.

"In these situations the association finds it difficult to resolve the sailors problems," he told Antara.

He added that in such situations the association has no knowledge of the location of the sailors since they did report their departures abroad.

Harahap explained that when sailors work under an agreement, these problems have easy solutions because everything has already been arranged upon beforehand.

In efforts to secure the welfare of the sailors, the association has made 112 agreements with foreign shipping lines, among them the Dutch owned Ned Lloyd.

Despite the many agreements with foreign shipping lines, the association has less than 10 domestic arrangements among the hundreds of companies existing in the country.

When asked the reason why so many domestic shipping lines worked without an arrangement, Harahap was speechless and merely smiled at the question.

He only said that working arrangements for sailors can be made at any harbor administrator's office where the sailor first boards the ship.

Commenting on the obstacles in a seamen's agreement, Harahap pointed to the ineffectiveness of Indonesia's commercial laws.

"Unfortunately the law does not specify the rights and obligations of both parties," he said.

The seamen's agreement and arrangement is subject to Book II of the Indonesia's Commercial Law.

To alter this handicap, the association has given handed their recommendations to the Ministry of Transportation.

Harahap expressed his confidence that should the association's proposals be put into law, the condition of sailors on commercial ships would be satisfactorily established. (07)