TSCHUDI-EITZEN GROUP OFFICER'S SEMINAR - 24TH TO 26TH JANUARY, 2001, MUMBAI.

Our relationship with the T&E group began in January 1997 when T&E acquired EAC Shipping of Denmark and decided to continue with the existing Indian officers / ratings on the four bulk / log carriers through 'SELANDIA'. Over the subsequent years, the number of vessels manned with Indian officers / ratings in the T&E group continued to grow and currently stands at 24 vessels with 350 seafarers onboard, another 320 are on leave, making a total of 670 available for the T&E pool.

The growth reflects a strong commitment towards Indian crewing and confirms that expectations with regard to competence, performance, availability, etc. are generally being met. The growth has also meant that opportunities have been made available to the seafarers for long-term employment,career enhancement through a policy of preferred promotions from the pool, job opportunities ashore and for training of cadets on the deck / engineering sides.

The seminar was organised in mumbai so as to provide a forum for, amongst other things, enhancing the awareness of the group's structure / activities, increasing interaction between the seafarers and management, increasing interaction between the seafarers themselves and to highlight areas that are, or could become, a cause for concern. There was praise from all quarters for the good job being done by the Indian seafarers whilst at the same time, as can be expected, there was some concern over issues such as avoidable accidents / incidents, rotation of senior officers, unplanned reliefs, upgrading to STCW95 certification and current / future crewing costs. The issues were addressed by various speakers during the day's proceedings and all present concurred that there was an enhanced understanding of the problem areas and that a concerted effort would be directed at ensuring improvement where found necessary. A Q/A session followed, during which topics concerning wages, contract terms, workload / pressure during port calls, maintenance / storing procedures, etc. were addressed and the seminar came to a close on a very positive note with the general view being that the time was well spent and of mutual benefit.