At the Maritime Industry Tripartite Council (MITC) meeting of 17 October 2011, according to Speaking notes for Cleopatra Doumbia-Henry, Director of the International Labour Standards Department, ILO-Geneva of the International Labour Standards Department (NORMES), ILO-Geneva, the Maritime Labour Convention (MLC), 2006 is designed to expressly achieve two goals with flexibility on many aspects including the way in which it is implemented. While ratification is an international step the key to bringing labour standards alive and relevance is a national implementation. In this process countries need to find a way to embrace international labour standards and to make these standards their own to help the country move forward to achieve common goals of their citizens, both workers and employers.

In that same meeting, Labor Secretary Rosalinda D. Baldoz of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) disclosed that the meeting approved two MITC resolutions that will endorse the issuance of Rules and Regulations Governing the Employment and Working Conditions of Domestic Seafarers and the Maritime Industry Tripartite Council, Resolution No. 2, Series of 2011.