Malaviya: Crew remain stranded as dispute rumbles on

Crew remain stranded as dispute rumbles on
31 May 2018

The captain of a ship moored in Great Yarmouth remains stranded without pay amid an ongoing legal dispute.

Captain Nikesh Rastogi, 43, from Mumbai, said he was contracted as part of a replacement crew for the offshore supply vessel Malaviya Twenty in February 2017.

The ship’s Indian owners fell into liquidation and the manning agents, Capt Rastogi’s employers, withdrew in January 2018 after new contracts failed to materialise, Capt Rastogi said.

All of his original crew have returned to India, and he remains aboard with three crew members, aged in their twenties, who joined him in September 2017 on six-month contracts. Capt Rastogi said he and his crewmates have not been paid since last year and could not leave.

He said: “If I were to get off the ship with everybody else, the vessel is considered a derelict which means anybody can take it over.”

more...http://www.greatyarmouthmercury.co.uk/news/indian-supply-vessel-in-legal...