Sickening.
Which bit?
The fact that they did it or the fact that they will get away with it?
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It’s their own making. They should have been increasing wages many years ago in anticipation of the manpower shortage but all they could ever do is complain and worry about new ways to recruit.
It MAY also have to do with lack of training facilities in the countries that supply officers and crews to the world fleet.
Another reason is that the days of adventure at sea is over. (If you want to see foreign lands, jump on a plane, take a Cruise, or join a group tour). You get to see more than grubby Port cities.
Like in developed countries, the interest in spending months locked up onboard ships, with littler or no opportunities for shore leave, is not there anymore.
The Pandemic didn’t help to improve the situation either.
Although the pay is good compared to job ashore (if any can be found) in their home countries, it MAY not be enough to make seafaring attractive.
PS> Wages are increasing with most quality Owners/Ship Managers to reflect the shortage of qualified seafarers.
That even applies to ITF Minimum wages:
All those factors you mentioned are ultimately about money. A combination of wages and living conditions/amenities, but money spent on the crew regardless.
No, not EVERYTHING is about money!!!
There are people (and places) who value quality of life more than money
And family life more than how much you can earn. (To buy more junk you don’t really need)
It is more important to be happy with your life than to be rich!! (Or famous).
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Sure, but when talking about employment and an inability to find employees it’s always going to ultimately be about money.
I disagree!!
Money doesn’t buy HAPPINESS!!
Money can’t replace family life!!
Money doesn’t equate Quality of life
If you can earn enough ashore to fill the above needs, who want to spend their life at sea, away from your family, living in cramped quarters with nowhere to go on your time off.
If that (and MONEY !!) make you happy, good for you.
Otherwise, find a job ashore. Go home to your family every night, or spend time with friends of your choosing wherever and however you like.
It beats sitting in your cabin counting your money. (figuratively speaking)
I do this work largely because I love the schedule and the massive amount of time off I get. I don’t understand how people can work 5 days a week with only short 2-day weekends off. I get way more time to enjoy my money than most people that work land jobs could possibly imagine!
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I disagree…
“Money doesn’t buy HAPPINESS!!
Money can’t replace family life!!
Money doesn’t equate Quality of life”
In your ideal world, maybe. Not here when struggle is norm.
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That’s an idiotic sentiment. No one is happy starving in the gutter. It’s impossible to be truly happy when you’re constantly stressed/worried about not being able to afford for our being evicted.
Money is absolutely ESSENTIAL to being happy.
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No employer that can’t find employees is paying enough because if they were they’d have a line of people wanting to work there. It doesn’t matter what industry or what country.
“Paying enough” encompasses all expenditures made towards the employee, in the case of mariners that includes Internet onboard and rotation. Maybe if the cheap-ass ship managers would give Filipino mariners 3 month on, 3 month off rotations at the same annual pay they wouldn’t have a shortage but the fact remains that they AREN’T PAYING ENOUGH for mariners.
Arnold would agree (sort of)::
“Money doesn’t make you happy. I now have $50 million but I was just as happy when I had $48 million”.
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FIRST YORKSHIREMAN:
Because we were poor. My old Dad used to say to me, “Money doesn’t buy you happiness, son”
Yes, that is what I said:
Money enough to live a comfortable life is ESSENTIAL, but to have time to ENJOY your life is more important.
Working 12 hrs./day, 7 days/week for half the year may be HAPPINESS!!! to some.
For others it is working 7.5 hrs./day, 5 days/week, having weekends off and 5 weeks leave/year + public holidays off to enjoy with family and friends, or to do whatever else they enjoy.
That is what is meant with “Quality of Life”, not to own a bigger house, a more expensive car, or have a lot of money in the bank to pass on to those kids you had no timer for when they were growing up, because you were too busy making money.
Unfortunately I have never lived that ideal life myself, but worked hard to make money from a tender age. (Started selling Newspapers at 7)
Tried (and fail, several times) to develop new things, but always been “a bit ahead of time”.
At least it was interesting and I got to experience both success (short lived) and failure.
So, I admit I have no nose for business, but at least I have tried and have no regrets.
Regrets, like money, doesn’t make you happy either.
Now I’m back in Norway and pensioned off. Not a lot of money to show for a long working life, but a lot of experience and memories, good and bad, from travelling the world, working with different people, some interesting and others better forgotten.
But there’s no time in any of that to enjoy much of anything. You barely have time at home to eat, shower, and sleep before doing it again the next day and weekends are consumed by errands, chores, and hopefully a few hours to relax. That’s why working six months a year and having six months of vacation to enjoy is so awesome. You get to actually enjoy your time off because you’re actually off.
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The number of working hrs. per week in Norway is 37.5. (In France it is 36)
They are taking about going to 4 day/weeks at same pay. (and productivity)
Offshore workers (on Rigs and Production Platforms) in Norway works 12 hrs. shifts/2 weeks, then have off 4 weeks to get the same number of working hours/yr. as an Industrial worker ashore.
PS> in addition to 5 week leave/year (1 wk. Winter + 3 wks. Summer + 1 wk. Autumn Holidays) they have Easter and X-mas/New year off, which stretches to 2 wks. ea., by taking some of your 10 sick leave days/yr. w/o Doctor’s Cert.
Sounds like some sort of Utopia??
Yes, I know. I’m not used to anything like that either.
Your lucky … at age 5 I had to go around collecting discarded newspapers, iron them flat, then walk barefoot 3 miles uphill to stand on a street corner in the rain hoping to sell them for half price.
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Why didn’t you sell them at the bottom of the hill, save a walk?
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The people who lived at the bottom of the hill were illiterate and couldn’t afford to buy a newspaper.
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