Ethiopian Maritime Workers Report Years of Unpaid Wages

By Mintesinot Nigussie  |  September 8, 2026

Some Ethiopian maritime professionals working aboard international vessels have gone without wages for as long as two years after being recruited through informal agents.

The workers, many of them electrical and mechanical engineering graduates trained at the Ethiopian Maritime Institute in Bahir Dar, were found to have entered employment through multiple unregistered agents rather than through a formal recruitment process, Abatehun Takele, president of the Federation of Transport and Communication Workers’ Unions Industry, told Ahadu Radio.

A government-led assessment also found cases in which workers did not have formal employment contracts or know the monthly salary attached to their positions. Some had accumulated unpaid wages covering between one and two years, according to Abatehun.

The findings followed concerns that have persisted since 2019. A committee drawn from the ministries of Labour and Skills, Foreign Affairs, and Transport and Logistics was established to investigate the employment conditions and related problems facing Ethiopian maritime professionals.

The recruitment chain can involve more than one informal agent before a worker reaches an international shipping company, creating uncertainty over who is responsible for the employment relationship and payment obligations, the federation said.

Abatehun said the federation has been working with the maritime inspection team of the International Transport Workers’ Federation, of which it is a member, to address the problems affecting Ethiopian workers aboard international vessels.

He said the country needs a formal legal framework governing maritime professionals when they enter employment, including clearer rules around recruitment and employment arrangements.

The federation president said there was no comparable problem with the country’s maritime transport and logistics sector through its membership structure, pointing instead to weaknesses in the recruitment and employment process involving workers placed with international shipping companies.

Source: FSX Business News