The week long operation will check conditions, recover owed wages, put vessels under ITF agreements that protect vulnerable workers, and more. It will also include a particular focus on three areas: CSAV ships, Leonhardt & Blumberg ships, and ferries and ro/ros operating in the Irish Sea.

The participating countries are: Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, The Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Russia, Sweden, and the UK.

Steve Cotton, ITF Maritime Coordinator, commented: “This is a new kind of week of action. It’s an intensive, week-long offensive that also adds these three distinct elements into the objectives of securing labour rights and quality shipping. It stands firmly alongside our long running campaigns but also gives everyone involved a chance to show what they can do.”

According to Cotton, the ITF’s focus on the Irish Sea is due to recent cases of a few operators that could seriously harm their more socially responsible competitors.

“We will be looking at CSAV, with whom we have an ongoing dialogue, as part of our attempts to persuade them of the benefits of co-operation,” said Cotton. “We will also be engaging L&B, whose CEO Frank Leonhardt had long boasted that he would take on the ITF and never sign an agreement – since then of course an ITF campaign has rather changed his mind on that, and he’s signed twenty.”