An Aberdeen court has ordered the arrest of the Malaviya Seven in an effort to recover wages owed to the crew aboard the offshore supply vessel.
The ship, owned by Indian company GOL Offshore, was detained by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) in Aberdeen harbour in October and has been there ever since.
Earlier this week, lawyers acting on behalf of the crew asked Aberdeen Sheriff Court to authorise the arrest of the Malaviya Seven and a writ has now been placed on the vessel.
The ship cannot leave the harbour until workers are paid.
If GOL cannot pay up, lawyers will ask the court to order the sale of the vessel to raise funds for the crew.
Liam Wilson, Scotland inspector for the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF), which appointed the crew’s legal team, said it was unlikely GOL would be able to stump up the funds.
Mr Wilson said he expected court hearings to begin in the next couple of weeks.
Mr Wilson said: “We have reached a point where the only way that these men are going to get home with the money they are due is to help them arrest the ship, and we have now taken that move. We anticipate that within the next, say, 12 to 16 weeks, the ship will be sold and what is owed to them recovered from the sale price.”
Mr Wilson said about 12 crew members were currently on board the Malaviya Seven but that a total of 36 workers are owed money from employment on the vessel.
He expects all crew members affected to receive their wages.
He said those currently on board were “struggling” because their families were going without an income and were having to take out loans to put food on the table.
ITF UK and Ireland coordinator Ken Fleming said workers were owed $666,938 (£533,000) and labelled the situation a scandal.
Mr Fleming said: “The owners and the Indian flag state should hang their head in shame. Equally all those that could have brought the situation to an end months ago should reflect on their inactivity.
“The ITF will now deal aggressively with the situation. Should the company or the bank not come in on record by early next week we will apply to the courts to dispose of the vessel by way of a sale to recover the crew wages. The situation will not be allowed to drag unnecessarily.”
The Malaviya Seven was first detained in June amid claims staff members had not received their wages for months while working in the North Sea.
The Mumbai-registered ship was allowed to leave the harbour in August after a pay deal was settled.
But the Malaviya Seven returned to the Granite City in October and was again prevented from leaving by the MCA.
At the time of its initial detention, the RMT union described the incident as an example of “modern day slavery”, while Aberdeen MPs Callum McCaig and Kirsty Blackman wrote to then-Home Secretary Theresa May calling for a full investigation.
Its sister ship, the Malaviya Twenty, was detained in June by authorities in Great Yarmouth.