The International Transport Federation (ITF) is overseeing the payment of more than €30,000 in arrears owed to nine Romanian crew members at the centre of a dispute of a ship in Dublin Port.
The Greek-owned ship, the Celtic Sea, was due to set sail at 9.30am yesterday morning however, following complaints made by crew members over pay and working conditions two inspectors from ITF inspected the ship and refused to leave until an agreement had been reached.
Following an inspection today Department of Transport officials from Port State Control have detained the Celtic Star for not keeping adequate records of hours worked by the crew and for having defective equipment on board.
The 11,000 ton freighter is currently docked at the Seatruck terminal in Dublin port.
Speaking today Ken Fleming of the ITF said the union had discovered the some of the crew were overworked which could lead to dangerous safety concerns. Mr Fleming said that following discussions the situation has been resolved and he was currently overseeing a pay out of arrears owed equating to roughly €30,000 to the crew members.
"That's a super ending for us...they [the crew] are very very happy," he said. It is expected that the crew members will be flown home on St Stephen's Day.