The owners of a Panama-registered gas tanker have been ordered by a Maltese court to pay 14 crew members €229,000 in salaries it has owed them since March.
The case was filed in the First Hall of the Civil Court by the captain of the MV CGM Tiger and 13 crew members.
The 2,997 tonne gas tanker, owned by Italian company Cryo Gas Med, sailed in on March 14 and remained in Maltese territorial waters.
It is now at Palumbo Shipyards.
The owners had told employees, some of them still in Malta, that it was waiting to take on new contracts to be able to pay as it was facing financial problems.
The court heard Paul Falzon, from the International Transport Federation, say that the organisation had responded to the crew’s call for help. Mr Falzon said the salaries due amounted to €228,749.
Mr Justice Mark Chetcuti ordered the tanker owner to pay its crew members the salary due to them.