Ian Bray

Ian Bray has spent 40 years advocating for the rights and entitlements of workers in the maritime industry.  Ian started his working life as a seafarer from 1985 to 2003. He was elected as Assistant Branch Secretary, Western Australia Branch of the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) (2003-2009) and Assistant National Secretary of the MUA (2009-2020). He was also a board member of the Australian Divers Accreditation Scheme (2011-2020) and the Australian Industry Standards (2013-2020).

In his current role as International Transport Workers Federation (ITF) Coordinator Australia (2021- ), Ian leads a team of inspectors based in Australian ports assisting overseas seafarers to receive their rightful pay and entitlements.  Ian recently launched the ITF Australian Inspectorate’s Nowhere to Hide Campaign aimed at raising awareness of the modern slavery treatment of overseas seafarers and the urgent need for legislative and regulatory change by the Australian Government.

The need for Australian Government intervention to better protect vulnerable overseas seafarers was identified in the Robbed at Sea: Endemic Wage Theft from Seafarers in Australian Waters report, commissioned by the ITF Australian Inspectorate and published by the Australia Institute/Centre for Future Work in 2022.