DANE Sea Line employees receive part of back pay

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In autumn 2004, the crews of three ships owned by DANE Sea Line were finally able to collect part of the back pay owed to them, after trade unions and the Greek Ministry of Merchant Marine intervened to set in motion the process of auctioning off the company’s assets to meet its obligations.

Employees on the DIAGORAS, RHODOS and PATMOS, three passenger ships sailing between Piraeus and the Dodecanese islands, did not receive their pay for three months or more during the first half of 2004, due to the poor financial standing of the ship-owner, DANE Sea Line. The accumulated financial problems that were thus passed on to the employees stemmed from the company’s financial weakness and increasing debts. The situation resulted in an intervention by the Panhellenic Seafarers’ Federation (PNO) in late June.

PNO recommended that the crew of the DIAGORAS refrain from withholding their labour, on condition that the company paid part of its total debt to employees. PNO also proposed that a specific schedule be drawn up for payment of the full amount owed to the employees. This proposal provoked substantial dissent among maritime trade unions, with some voices demanding full payment of back pay and other financial obligations owed to the company’s staff. In early July, representatives of the Panhellenic Union of Engineers (PEMEN) and the Panhellenic Union of Junior Engine Crews (STEFENSON) submitted to the prosecutor at the Piraeus Magistrates Courts a complaint against officials of the Greek Seafarers’ Pension Fund (NAT), accusing them of failing to collect from DANE Sea Line’s overdue debts to the NAT in good time, resulting in their accumulation and a worse situation for the employees, in terms of both finances and morale. The amounts owed to the NAT due to non-payment of contributions are estimated at EUR 6 million.

Next, with no solution for saving the company in sight, PNO asked the Ministry of Merchant Marine to extend the regulatory framework provided by Law 1220/1981 on the 'abandonment abroad of Greek maritime workers signed to ships which fly the Greek flag and have entered into an agreement with the NAT' to Greek coastal shipping lines. The Ministry accepted this demand, thus removing all legal obstacles to addressing the DANE situation by auctioning off its assets. Thus, the Minister issued a decision giving the go-ahead for the NAT to pay the amounts owed. Specifically, 400 DANE maritime workers will receive three months’ wages through the NAT, amounting to a total of EUR 1,050,000. Initially the NAT committed itself to paying EUR 850,000, but following strong interventions by PNO the amount was raised to EUR 1,050,000.

Regarding the procedure to be followed, the NAT will pay this amount in the form of a loan to the Greek Seafarers' House (a welfare institution), which in turn will pay to all maritime workers who have served on a DANE ship, or been dismissed and hired by another ship-owner, back pay and benefits owing to them. The NAT will demand this amount directly from the ship-owning company either in or out of court, or from the proceeds from the auction of the DIAGORAS, PATMOS and RHODOS.

The DANE case has highlighted a proposal put forward in the past by PNO to set up a national body to cover back pay for all maritime workers, inside and outside Greece, without exclusions, legal 'red tape' or other prerequisites. PNO has stated in a recent letter to the Ministry that its proposal to set up a special fund to cover workers against insolvent employers has acquired particular importance, as there is currently a real danger of cutbacks in service and violation of labour legislation regarding ships.