Employment terms

A commercial manager fixed a ship that had been under his management for several years for a project voyage to Finland. After the fixture had been concluded, the owners objected to the fixture as the vessel did not have a contract with the International Transport Federation (ITF) as required by Finnish authorities for all vessels entering Finnish waters.

Attempts were made to replace the vessel with another, or to cancel the contract, but the charterer advised that his losses would be substantial and would be claimed from owners. In order to mitigate potential losses the owners entered into an ITF contract and claimed the additional costs of US$ 88,000 from the commercial manager.