THERE seems to have been little change in the wage rates of seamen over the past 12 months, according to the International Shipping Federation.
The federation is collating returns of its 1994 wage survey covering chief officers and able seamen of different nationalities.
For seafarers paid in US dollars, principally those from Asian, Indian and eastern European countries serving on open registry vessels, the depreciation of local currencies against the dollar last year provided an increase in real wages, which in most cases outstripped any rise in the cost of living, the federation said in its 1993-94 annual report.
Modest increases of about two per cent in the principal collective agreements covering Indian and Filipino seafarers serving on Norwegian and Danish international registry ships confirmed the trend towards low single-figure settlements in these countries.
These raised further questions about the legitimacy of the International Transport Workers Federation's demand for a 10 per cent increase across the board, the report said.
With inflation coming down in many industrialised countries, wage increases had been modest, usually in single figures.
''In certain European countries there are signs that wage increases may have begun to creep upwards against the 1992 situation, but overall the trend is stable,'' the report said.