Some original permanent crew members of the Heinaste fishing trawler are beginning to be concerned that they may not be employed by the time the vessel takes to the sea, as there is a strong suspicion new employee may be taken in.The vessel was once owned by the fish-rot accused Icelandic company Samherji but has since been bought by Tunacor which promised that permanent crew members will be employed.
Eagle FM has seen documents where some of the crew members have requested an urgent meeting to discuss their future with the vessel.
The meeting was slated for the 19th of November but until now, the aggrieved have voiced that they are being kept in the dark about whether they will take to sea with the vessel or not.
They have accused Tunacor of making use of their names to get a quota only to seek to “dump them like a sack of potatoes”.
But Tunacor managing director, Joras Hitula, has said there are two types of crew members: those that were retrenched (which Tunacor will not employ) and those that were employed after the retrenchment (which will be taken in).
“All of them are referring to themselves as the original crew. They were the crew that were employed about two and a half years ago and they were legally retrenched. So, I believe they were paid out at the time they were retrenched and then the vessel took on a new crew. This was all before we purchased the vessel. This crew worked on the vessel for about a year and for us, this is the crew that is the former crew of the vessel. Those are the ones we can recognize,” he said.
Hitula said the aggrieved crew have not formally approached them on this issue, despite their call for an urgent meeting with Tunacor.
Hitula said they have gone to the media instead.
