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HELLESYLT / OSLO (Dagbladet): Hurtigruten’s ship “MS Fridtjof Nansen” is located at the quay of the town of Hellesylt in the municipality of Stranda. In September, Hurtigruten rents two boats for the recording of “Mission: Impossible.” The ships house a total of almost 400 film workers from Norway and abroad.
The fact that the cruise ship is on the dock in operation as a place to stay for almost a month caused the Norwegian Seamen’s Association to react strongly, as Dagbladet wrote on Monday. They have sent a notification to the Norwegian Maritime Directorate about what they believe is a breach of the so-called NIS regulations, but received a response that the operation is within the law.
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– The decision is completely incomprehensible. No one has done this before precisely because it has been believed to be illegal, lawyer Terje Hernes Pettersen of the Norwegian Seamen’s Association told Dagbladet on Monday afternoon.
– This opens up in practice for Viking Cruises and Hurtigruten to anchor at Aker Brygge as a hotel and, at the same time, pay employees as little as 29 crowns an hour. I recently spoke with our collective bargaining department. They have calculated that it is the lowest hourly wage on that ship, he continued.
On Tuesday, VG reports that Fellesforbundet and Sjømannsforbundet have joined forces on a Hurtigruten review. Unions tell Dagbladet they suspect immigration law violations.
Cruise warning: – social dumping
– I laughed
The Norwegian Seamen’s Association now receives support among Norwegian politicians in the Storting. Terje Aasland of the Labor Party is a member of the trade committee. Recently, he asked the Minister of Trade and Industry, Iselin Nybø (V), if she supports the decision of the Norwegian Maritime Directorate.
– If the government does not stop this, it is serious. We don’t want the Norwegian coast to be anchored by cruise ships that run hotels with foreign workers. That is why I have asked Nybø about this. I think Hurtigruten is in clear violation of NIS regulations, he tells Dagbladet.
Aasland goes tough against Hurtigruten.
– The way I see it, this is pure social dumping of reindeer and gross exploitation of our own position and the Hurtigruten ship, and that in a demanding situation for Norwegian tourism, he says.
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– An escape
The Labor politician is endorsed by the Conservative Party’s maritime policy spokesman, Tom-Christer Nilsen.
– If this is allowed, there is a legal gap that must be analyzed, so that employees and hotels have fair competition. NIS regulations exist because Norwegian ships must have the opportunity to compete with international shipping, not Norwegian hotels, Nilsen tells Dagbladet.
According to the Norwegian Seamen’s Association, the ship’s crew can earn as little as 29 kroner an hour.
– It is fair and reasonable for Hurtigruten to pay them according to the Norwegian rate. We cannot conclude that if the hotels are floating the rate rules can be circumvented. That is not the intention with the NIS regulations, says Nilsen.
– Within the rules
Public relations director Anne Marit Bjørnflaten at Hurtigruten received the statements from Aasland and Nilsen.
– This is a constructed disagreement. Hurtigruten does not want to use our expedition ships as floating hotels in the Norwegian fjords, but instead to sail on expeditions to Antarctica, the Northwest Passage and around Svalbard, he replies in an email.
She does not believe that MS Fridtjof Nansen can be defined as a hotel ship.
– On a hotel ship, anyone can reserve a cabin. In this assignment, the production company has chartered the ship for a short period in relation to production.
Risk of incarceration
– Incorrect
Therefore, he does not agree with the criticisms.
– Therefore, to say that this will lead to cruise ships being able to anchor at, for example, Aker Brygge and conduct hotel operations in competition with Norwegian hotels, is not true.
She believes that the use of the ship is “well within” the rules for NIS ships, noting that the Norwegian Maritime Directorate has previously concluded that the ship does not violate the regulations.
– The ship operates legally in accordance with the NIS Law and the rules governing salary and working conditions, and working and rest time for the crew on board NIS registered vessels. The Norwegian Seamen’s Association is well aware that there is no “social dumping” on NIS vessels.
Bjørnflaten writes that MS Fridtjof Nansen has not been chosen to save costs, but because the boat is best suited for the task.
– Not least for infection control reasons. We have asked the Norwegian Seamen’s Association for a dialogue on where the salary level should be, and we have said for our part that we will offer salaries at the Norwegian level. Therefore, it is difficult to understand why the Norwegian Seafarers Association makes such baseless accusations.
Fair competition
According to the Norwegian Seafarers Association, it was not until 2015 that cruise ships registered in the so-called NIS registry (Viking Cruises and Hurtigruten, editor’s note) were allowed to carry out such activities in a Norwegian port.
The lawyer writes that the ban was enshrined in law because the NIS registry was opened to hire crews on international terms. Ships that are registered in the Norwegian NOR register, however, use Norwegian working conditions.
– The ban will prevent shipping companies from using NIS vessels in competition with NOR vessels in Norwegian waters and thus will not jeopardize Norwegian jobs and prevent social dumping, writes Hernes Pettersen.
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