Video News Releases

August 2012

1. 

   Taking Decent Work on Board

   21 August 2012

   When the ILO adopted the Maritime Labour Convention (MLC 2006) in February 2006, Director-General Juan Somavia called it "making labour history" for seafarers around the world.The MLC, 2006, will come into force 12 months after ratification by 30 ILO member States, representing a total share of at least 33 percent of the world's gross tonnage (gt) of ships. The Convention promotes a strong enforcement regime to ensure that labour standards are enforced as effectively as the International Maritime Organization (IMO) conventions on ship safety, security and environmental protection (SOLAS/MARPOL) by both flag and port States.

June 2008

1. 

   New Skills and New Faces Revive Argentina’s Naval Industry

   05 June 2008

   South of Buenos Aires is Mar del Plata, a popular seaside resort and one of Argentina’s major ports. For years Mar del Plata had an important ship-building industry, but when the government liberalised the economy in the 1990s most of the ship-yards were forced to downsize or close down. The AREA programme has helped them get back on their feet, by bringing workers, employers and learning institutions together to address the needs of the industry.

January 2006

1. Denmark: Port State Control

   19 January 2006

   Long before talk of globalization, seafarers lived and worked in a globalized world, with working conditions subject to 60 different labour conventions and recommendations. The International Labour Organisation has now brought all the different rules and regulations together under one maritime labour convention. ILO TV goes on board a North Sea oil tanker in Denmark to check that all is ship-shape.

December 2001

1. 

   CONDITIONS IN THE MARITIME INDUSTRY

   07 December 2001

   More than 90 percent of the world’s trade tonnage is carried by a merchant fleet of some 50,000 ships. According to a report from the International Labour Organization (ILO), changes in the financing and management of these ships has led to deregulation and more flexible working conditions for seafarers, but these conditions are not always to their advantage.

2. 

   ABANDONED IN AMSTERDAM

   05 December 2001

   It used to be that a seafarer would only abandon ship under the most dire circumstances. But more and more, it is the seafarer who is finding himself abandoned, stranded and forgotten in foreign ports all over the world. It is a growing problem as ILO Television explains:

October 2001

1. 

   Shipbreakers

   22 October 2001

   On 20 kilometers of sloping beaches in Bangladesh, an army of men daily perform some of the world’s toughest work. Tankers that survived years of high-seasoned heavy loads are now dismantled as they were built, by hand.