The claims come after the steelmaker and BHP dropped the Australian-crewed ships carrying iron ore from Western Australia to the steelworks, replacing them with foreign vessels crewed by overseas sailors.

International Transport Workers’ Federation inspectors were contacted by 20 Filipino seafarers on board the Panamanian registered vessel KEN EI, which had been chartered by BlueScope, over unpaid wages.

The 20 Filipino seafarers said they owned a total of $38,384.

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“Upon arriving in Western Port, the crew on the KEN EI immediately asked our inspector about claims for payment for two coastal voyages and requested that the ITF contact the ship owner as they had no correspondence or indication that they would be paid by either the ship owner or charterers BlueScope and Rio Tinto,” said ITF national coordinator Dean Summers.

The ITF made enquiries and the wages were “paid immediately”.

“In this case, the ship owner only co-operated after we alerted them to their obligations under Australian law,” Mr Summers said.

“We even had to correct their calculations to ensure the crew were paid correctly.

“Wage theft is one of the biggest problems in the global shipping industry.

“In December last year alone, ITF inspectors conducted 761 inspections and recovered almost $2 million in wages stolen from the world’s seafarers.

“The decision by BHP and BlueScope – facilitated by the Morrison Government – has again opened the door to more exploitation on our coast.”

A BlueScope spokesperson said BlueScope is not the owner or the operator of the ship.

“We are not a transport company, we are a steelmaker taking delivery of raw materials. Our contractual expectations are that any chartered vessel is ITF compliant.

“Therefore, any suggestion of non-compliance should be directed to the vessel owners and operators.”