An overview of the proposed consolidated maritime labour Convention, 2006

The ILO and its work in the maritime sector

Seafarers and the conditions of work and living that they experience have always been of special concern to the ILO.

• The ILO's earliest legal instruments were aimed at improving the working conditions of seafarers.
• One of the first legal instruments that the ILO adopted was a Recommendation (National Seamen's Code Recommendation, 1920 (No. 9)), a year after the ILO was created, foreseeing the importance of the establishment of an international seafarers' code, which would clearly set out the rights and obligations relevant to this sector.
• Matters relating particularly to the situation of seafarers have also, from the beginning, normally, been considered at a special session, a maritime session of the International Labour Conference.
• The first Maritime Session of the ILO took place in 1920. Since then there have been 9 maritime sessions. The last was in 1996.
• The next Maritime session in February 2006 will be the 94th International Labour Conference and the 10th Maritime session.
• At this 10th session the ILO will devote itself to the review and adoption of an important new legal instrument, the Maritime Labour Convention, 2006, which seeks to fulfil the ideas first foreseen in 1920 – a comprehensive code regarding seafarers’ rights and the obligations of States with respect to these rights.

The ILO and maritime labour standards

• Since 1920 the ILO has adopted more than 65 legal instruments (Conventions and Recommendations).
• Taken all together these instruments comprehensively address all aspects of working conditions for seafarers.
• Issues that are addressed include concerns central to securing conditions of “decent work” for seafarers such as the minimum age for work onboard ships, hours of work, occupational safety and health protection, standards for accommodation and catering, access to medical care, repatriation, labour inspections and social security.

Changes needed to ILO standard setting

• The phenomenon described as “globalization”, has required that the ILO review its standard setting and supervisory activity with a view to ensuring that its standards are designed to achieve universal acceptance and that issues such as effective enforcement and compliance are directly addressed.
• In 1998 the ILO engaged in an examination of the maritime labour instruments (international Conventions & Recommendations) as part of an overall review of its standards and standard setting practices.
• Changes in the maritime sector meant that changes in standards were needed.

Changes needed to modernize ILO maritime standards

• This led to the idea in 2001, of the Workers and Employers in the Joint Maritime Commission, for a new approach to ensure: (a) comprehensive and effective protection of the seafarers’ rights to decent work and (b) a level playing field for Governments and Shipowners, with flexibility as to the means of delivering this protection and accommodating diversity.
• The Workers and Employers developed a number of preferred solutions or approaches to maritime labour standards, called the “Geneva Accord’, which were supported by Governments.
• A number of factors affecting the maritime sector led the ILO Governing Body to agree with the ideas in the “Geneva Accord” and to conclude that there was a need for a major revision of the existing labour instruments in order to better meet the need for international standards for decent work in the maritime sector.

Reasons for change

Reasons for change included the fact that:

• many of the existing ILO instruments need to be updated
• extensive structural change in the shipping industry, particularly in the last 25 years
• emergence of the world’s first genuinely global industry and workforce
• changes in ownership, financing and the rise of ship management companies resulting in significant shifts in the labour market for seafarers
• development of consciously composed mixed nationality crews in highly organized global network linking shipowners, ship managers, crew managers, labour supplying agencies and training institutions
• increased internationalization of ship registries and “flags of convenience”
• a need to provide a “level playing field” and avoid exploitation of workers
• increased stress and complexity in the maritime work place has an impact on the health and social security of workers
• there is a relatively low ratification rate for some key Conventions
• a high level of detail combined with the large number of Conventions led to problems for inspections and enforcement
• conditions of employment change rapidly but the process of updating Conventions in the ILO is expensive and lengthy

The purpose of the proposed maritime labour Convention, 2006

In 2001, the ILO Governing Body took a decision to develop a new instrument that would:

• consolidate nearly all existing maritime labour standards,
• meet current and future needs,
• address barriers to achieving universality in the acceptance of the standards, and
• ensure better and more effective implementation of the standards.

An extensive consultation exercise stretching over more than four years and involving up to as many as 88 countries, developed the proposed Convention text.

The new Convention is seen as having two primary purposes:

• to bring the system of protection contained in existing labour standards closer to the workers concerned, in a form consistent with the rapidly developing, globalized sector;
• to improve the applicability of the system so that shipowners and governments interested in providing decent conditions of work do not have to bear an unequal burden in ensuring protection.

The draft Convention was reviewed in detail in September 2004 by a Preparatory Technical Maritime Conference (PTMC) involving over 500 delegates who adopted both the structure and the majority of the proposed Convention text.

A follow-up meeting in April 2005 developed additional text to address several specific areas that had been left unresolved by the PTMC and reviewed proposals for amendments that had not been considered at the PTMC because of time constraints.

The new draft convention adopted by the PTMC combines the “best of the old with the new”.

It combines core standards found in existing Convention with an innovative format aimed at achieving universal acceptance and a new approach to securing ongoing compliance and to more rapidly updating of the technical standards.

Format of the proposed maritime labour Convention, 2006

Three different but related parts:

• Articles
• Regulations
• a Code (Part A mandatory Standards, Part B non-mandatory Guidelines)

The proposed Convention is “vertically integrated” in presentation with the Regulations and Code provisions organised under 5 Titles:

• Title 1: Minimum requirements for seafarers to work on a ship
• Title 2: Conditions of employment
• Title 3: Accommodation, recreational facilities, food and catering
• Title 4: Health protection, medical care, welfare and social protection
• Title 5: Compliance and enforcement

Example of vertical integration (extracts):

Regulation 1.2 – Medical certificate

Purpose: To ensure that all seafarers are medically fit to perform their duties at sea

1. Seafarers shall not work on a ship unless they are certified as medically fit to perform their duties.) …

Standard A1.2 – Medical certificate

1. The competent authority shall require that, prior to beginning work on a ship, seafarers hold a valid medical certificate attesting that they are medically fit to perform the duties they are to carry out at sea. ….

Guideline B1.2 – Medical certificate

Guideline B1.2.1 – International Guidelines…

Innovations

Some innovative features of the new Convention include:

• a new system for effective enforcement and compliance - a certification system for labour standards (a Maritime Labour Certificate & a Declaration of Maritime Labour Compliance issued by the flag State)
• flag State certification and a foreign port inspection system applies to ships above 500 GT engaged in international voyages or voyages between foreign ports, however the certificate system is available, on request by shipowners, to other ships
• The Certificate and Declaration will provide prima facie evidence of compliance with the requirements of the Convention
• standards will still apply to most other ships (smaller ships can be exempted from some requirements) however, the port inspection provisions and certification requirements would not be mandatory.
• accelerated Convention amendment procedures to update Code provisions to address changes in the sector
• onboard and onshore complaint procedures to encourage rapid resolution of problems, if possible
• a complaint and inspection system that is linked with the well-established ILO supervisory system
• provisions setting international standards for flag State delegation of some functions to a Recognized Organization
• a modernized management based approach to occupational safety and health

Conclusion

The Maritime Labour Convention, 2006 is needed because it will:

• provide a modern system for improved and enforceable conditions for decent work in the maritime sector
• create, as much as possible, a level playing field in a globalized industry by ensuring that competition is not based on unjust, exploitive and unfair labor practices