A seafarer has died in hospital after an accident at Dublin Port last week, it has emerged.
The International Transport Federation (ITF) union said Patrick Zawadowicz (31) was one of two men injured at the port last Tuesday, August 7 th.
Ken Fleming, ITF
The accident, which happened at 11.30pm at night, was connected with the Dublin Viking vessel being operated on behalf of the Norfolk Line, the ITF said today.
"One of the men died this afternoon in the Mater hospital. The other man has been discharged and his whereabouts are unknown," ITF inspector Ken Fleming of Siptu said.
However, Siptu later said the second man, who suffered a dislocated shoulder in the incident, had been located.
The man would not be able to return to work for some time, Siptu said.
Mr Fleming said the union is trying to establish the facts in the case and is to carry out an inspection of the Dublin Vikingthis evening. It has reported the incident to the Health and Safety Authority.
The ITF said it has also been informed by the Garda Síochána that the force will be investigating the circumstances of Mr Zawadowicz's death.
According to the ITF, Mr Zawadowicz was married and his wife is expecting their first child next month.
He was Third Officer on the Dublin Vikingand was due to retire at the end of this month to take up shore based employment so that he could spend more time at home with his family.
Mr Fleming said the father of the deceased has been in Ireland since Friday but has also been unable to obtain any information on the incident from the company.
The vessel left Dublin after the accident and returned today.
Mr Fleming said that initially he had been denied access to the terminal at Dublin Port by Norfolk Line but that this was overruled by Maersk, the Danish-based multinational of which it is a subsidiary.
"It is difficult to comment before establishing exactly what has happened. Unfortunately Mr Zawadowicz was in a critical condition at the Mater all week and was not able to tell us himself. Neither his father, nor the ITF were given the information required to proceed any further," Mr Fleming said.
"It is outrageous that Norfolk Line allowed the vessel to leave port after such a serious incident without allowing the ITF or the Health and Safety Authority the opportunity to investigate matters first hand."
Referring to other controversies involving the same shipping group, Mr Fleming said he believed Norfolk Line "had had enough bad publicity for one year".
"Last Christmas two of its chartered vessels were found to be double book-keeping, short changing crews of their wages, and generally treating seafarers as expendable," he said.
"The Merchant Braverywas detained in Dublin by the High Court last December and $250,000 recovered in arrears. Its sister ship, the Merchant Brilliant, was involved in similar activities and had to pay $272,000 in arrears to two crews. On one occasion the crew were marooned in Morecambe bay in an effort to deny them their rights."