GENEVA (ILO News) - The Joint Maritime Commission (JMC) of the International Labour Organization (ILO) opens a five-day meeting here Monday to consider updating the minimum wage for able seafarers, and to fashion a new "bill of rights" for all seafarers on the high seas.
In addition to the minimum wage issue, the JMC is to examine the impact on seafarers' living and working conditions of changes in the structure of the shipping industry which is expanding along with global trade.
Shipowners and seafarers representatives will also discuss a new approach to standard-setting in the maritime field in keeping with a consensus reached in the Governing Body in November 2000 on an integrated approach to standards. It aims to consolidate the existing body of 30 Conventions and 23 Recommendations into one major framework instrument representing a kind of "bill of rights" for the industry.
The JMC is the only and the oldest permanent standing sectoral body of the ILO. The meeting will be opened by ILO Director-General Juan Somavia at ILO Headquarters at 10:30 a.m. The Secretary-General of the International Transport Federation (ITF), Mr. David Cockroft and the representative of the International Shipping Federation (ISF), Mr. Lachlan Payne (General Secretary of the Australian Shipowners Association), will also make statements.
"I strongly encourage the social partners in the shipping industry to intensify their social dialogue in order to ensure decent work for seafarers" Mr. Somavia said. "Let us also work together in a dynamic and effective partnership to realize this goal."
Seafarers' pay in decline
According to a background report prepared for the meeting * , the minimum wage currently recommended by the ILO is set at US$435 per month for an able seafarer (Seafarers' Wages, Hours of Work and the Manning of Ships Recommendation, 1996 ( No. 187).
In absolute terms, average wage rates for able seafarers have declined between 1992 and 1999, the report says. Seafarers from developed countries have been particularly hard hit. In Australia, for example, able seafarers average monthly earnings declined by 65 per cent over the seven-year period, compared to 53 per cent for Japanese and German seafarers; 51 per cent for the Belgians; 43 per cent for the Danish; 49 per cent for the Dutch; 26 per cent for the Portuguese; and 14 per cent for the French.
By contrast, the report notes that wage rates for Brazilian, Bulgarian, Filipino, Indonesian, Latvian, and Russian seafarers exhibited no significant change in absolute terms. Salaries for seafarers from Bangladesh, Myanmar (Burma), China, Hong Kong (China), India and Poland actually increased between 25 and 91 per cent (absolute terms). Some nationalities have seen significant wage increases since the early 1990s, although they are still below the average for all nationalities.
The application of Recommendation No. 187 is not mandatory unless a government chooses to make it so through legislation. It is nevertheless used by shipowners and trade unions in setting wage scales. The mechanism is the only one in the ILO for setting the basic monthly wage for any industry.
In other matters, the JMC will see the formal launch of a "Decent Work Programme in the Maritime Industry." The Programme already has the support of the ITF. In addition, the International Shipping Federation is also expected to launch its own Guidelines on Good Employment Practice for shipowners. The Guidelines, which may be considered the first of their kind to be adopted at the global level by an employer body and are largely based on ILO Conventions and Recommendations, particularly ILO maritime standards.
Today, some 50,000 ships are engaged in international trade, some two-thirds of these are dry cargo ships, about a fifth tankers and the remainder ferries, passenger ships and supply boats working in the offshore sector. World trade continued to increase and most cargo generated by this trade is carried by sea. Over the past decade, the number of ships in the world fleet has increased by 10 per cent and its tonnage by 35 per cent and this trend is expected to continue. In addition, there have been major changes in financing, ownership and management of ships as well as in the labour market for seafarers.
Some 1.25 million seafarers are employed on board ships, of which one third are officers. This figure excludes catering and hotel staff working on passenger ships, and other categories of workers such as those on small coastal and fishing vessels. The maritime workforce, like the shipping industry itself, is international. Seafarer population by region can be broken down as follows:
| Region | Officers | Ratings (seafarers) |
| Far East | 32 % | 40 % |
| OECD | 36 % | 23 % |
| Eastern Europe | 15 % | 13 % |
| Africa and Latin America | 9 % | 11 % |
| Indian sub-continent | 8 % | 13 % |
* The impact on seafarers' living and working
conditions of changes in the structure of the shipping industry,
ILO, Geneva 2001, ISBN: 92-2-112237-9, price 20 CHF.
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