Daily
Fairplay News 07 May 2008
SNRH still victim of
politics
THE French offshoot of a Dutch towage company can
finally start working in Le
Havre after winning the eighth lawsuit in a row trying to
stop it.
THE French offshoot of
a Dutch towage company can finally start working in Le Havre after winning the
eighth lawsuit in a row trying to stop it. A French court ruled that it was
unlawful to have prevented SRNH, a wing of Dutch major Kotug International, from
working in order to comply with another set of local harbour towage rules.
SRNH's competitor Boluda (formerly Les Abeilles) went on strike last week in
protest against the Dutch outfit. It claimed that SNRH operated against towage
regulations by having crew on its the five tugs working in shifts 14 hours on,
14 hours off duty, rather than the compulsory seven hours on and seven hours off
duty after 15 hours. Boluda and the unions threatened to call a strike at all
French seaports over the issue.
"Our vessels are inspected twice a day
by the Affaires Maritime" (the maritime inspectorate in Le Havre), Kotug
International CEO Ard-Jan Kooren told Fairplay. "That is out of the ordinary. We
agree with critics who say that the whole affair is politically driven.
Apparently, foreign operators are not welcome in Le Havre, even when they comply with almost
every rule imaginable.
"SNRH operates the five vessels under French flag
and employs French workers. We have taken the forced suspension to court and the
court ruling has proved us right. It is time to ask why services rendered by a
company from a European member state, even though not French, can be blockaded
in an open European market."
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