A Panama registered luxury ocean liner was restrained from operating in Guangzhou Port because of a payment dispute between 51 sailors and their employer.
The Guangzhou Marine Court issued the restraint warrant on Monday after reviewing a lawsuit filed by the sailors against their employer - the Pallister Group Ltd of Panama.
The sailors claimed that the owners of the ocean liner, Orient Princess, were in arrears with their salaries, totalling HK$3.2 million (US$411,300), according to a court official who refused to be identified.
The ocean liner will be allowed to leave Guangzhou Port to continue its voyage when the payment disputes are settled, the official added.
The sailors have expressed their desire to continue to work on the vessel after they receive their salaries, the official added.
The court needs to collect more evidence and conduct a wider investigation before it opens a hearing on the case.
The Orient Princess, owned by the Pallister Group Ltd of Panama, is the first ocean liner to have been restrained by Chinese courts due to unpaid salaries.
The 10,298-ton Orient Princess was once one of the most luxurious vessels to navigate in Chinese waters during the 1960s and 1970s. But the ocean liner's business began to decline due to fierce competition and poor management since the late 1970s, causing it to change ownership several times.
In their written statement to the court, the sailors claimed the owners of the Orient Princess began to fall behind in salary payments in 1997, with no payments made since last year.
The sailors had previously attempted to negotiate with their employers with unsatisfactory results, forcing them to resort to filing a lawsuit to demand payment.
(China Daily April 11, 2002)
