It's not just “welcome” but “welcome back” this month. Spinnaker recently welcomed back Sandra Sutton to our Technical Division and is delighted to announce that former Spinnaker stalwart Eric Branson will rejoin us on August 1st as Manager of our Commercial Division…

The OSCAR Campaign has now raised GBP225,000 towards its half million pound initial target since April. Thank you all of you who have donated, helped to promote OSCAR and given encouragement and ideas.

The National Union of Seafarers of India has won its court case with the Indian National Shipowners Association which had asked the Bombay High Court to set up a tribunal to adjudicate in disputes between shipowners and seafarers.

The Maritime Labour Convention is nearly upon us. Good job too! And it seems that some of you out there are getting ahead of the game. With the ratification of the MLC 2006 by Denmark, 16 ILO member States, representing over 53 per cent of the world gross tonnage of ships, are now parties…

Our good friend Giles Heimann has recently been appointed chairman of the Save Our Seafarers campaign – an industry wide initiative to rally politicians to do something concrete to combat piracy…

IMEC is looking for a Membership Liaison and Agreeement Officer who will have one on one responsibility for engaging with IMEC members over specific issues and concerns.

Networking is obviously a key ingredient for the shipping industry, and the Shipping Professional Network in London offers young shipping professionals the chance to gain information from industry leaders as well as party on down (sorry, “network”) …

Earning over $250,000? Well pat yourself on the back as you are now officially ultra-rich and as such will be taxed accordingly, at least in the US where President Obama is targeting higher earners.

A ray of sunshine from Moore Stephens' Richard Greiner…