Sea

Situation: due to its debts to seafarers, the vessel “Lokys”, operable by the company Passat, got stuck in the UK.
© Photo by “Vesseltracker.com”

Spausdinti   Supplement to article

Having significantly affected the shipping industry, the global financial crisis did not spare the shipping company Passat, located in Klaipeda.

In mid-February, Klaipeda district court adopted the statement on the initiation of bankruptcy procedures to this company.

It has been known for some time that the company Passat were indebted to its seafarers. Some seafarers applied to the Lithuanian Seafarers’ Union for help over a year ago. The Chairman of the Union Petras Bekeza says that they have a list of people who have not been paid for more than a year. Sea captains are among them.

P. Bekėza warned seafarers not to get enticed by desire to work in the company, for it is unreliable.

Raimundas Mazulis, the solicitor at Henrikas Mackevicius’s and partners’ chambers, which would often represent seafarers, claimed that they represented two cases regarding the seafarers from the Passat company. Both of them ended by signing peace treaties after Passat had paid back its debts to the workers.

Seafarers addressed the lawyers for another four times in relation to the debts; the cases did not reach the trial. The money was paid back.

The shipping company Passat operated the ships Stropus (6,277 deadweight tons), “Lokys” and “Vigo” (2,890 deadweight tons).

According to preliminary data, because of the debts, the ship “Lokys” has been detained at the British port of Cardiff. The ship was seized at the International Transport Federation inspector’s request.

The company Passat had a seafarers’ employment at ships unit. Its certificate validity expired last November. The head of the Maritime Safety Administration business certification unit Antanas Draugelis said that the company Passat was not issued a new certificate, although it had applied for it.

”We made remarks on the debts to the seafarers. We also found some discrepancies in the seafarers’ job contracts. It turned out that the vessels were insured, but some of the employees were not. Following these observations, the company’s representatives did not come again to ask for seamen’s certificates”, assured the A.Draugelis.

This means that the company Passat could not hire seafarers at the moment.