Shipping: Social dialogue

Social dialogue is the main means of achieving the ILO's objectives in the maritime sector. Negotiations, consultations or exchanges of information enable consistent progress for the conditions of work and life of seafarers of the merchant fleet.

Representatives of shipowners through their organizations, mostly members of the International Shipping Federation (ISF), and of seafarers' through their trade unions, mostly affiliates of the International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF), meet within the ILO’s Joint Maritime Commission to discuss issues relating to the conditions of work and life of seafarers and make recommendations to the Governing Body of the ILO as to the programme of work of the Office in the shipping sector and, in particular the agenda of the Maritime Sessions of the International Labour Conference.

The various recommendations of the Joint Maritime Commission since the founding of the ILO has resulted in the adoption of more than 60 Conventions and Recommendations addressing specific maritime labour issues.

The most recent recommendations of the Joint Maritime Commission led to a process of consolidation of the ILO's maritime labour standards and the adoption of the Maritime Labour Convention, 2006 by the 94th (Maritime) Session of the International Labour Conference.

Outputs of social dialogue in the maritime sector also include various international guidelines and codes of practice.

One of the outstanding products of social dialogue at the international level in the maritime industry is the minimum recommended wage figure for able seafarers, often called the ILO minimum, which is agreed periodically by the social partners at the ILO.

The 1990s witnessed the development of global collective bargaining in the shipping sector.  In the early part of that decade, shipowners formed the International Maritime Employers’ Committee (IMEC) for the purpose of negotiating a global industry pay agreement with the ITF for seafarers working on board FOC ships.  The first such agreement was negotiated in 2001.  This was followed by the formation of the Joint Negotiating Group, which itself negotiates with the ITF Fair Practices Committee through the International Bargaining Forum.  These negotiations take into account changes in the ILO’s maritime labour standards, including the recommended minimum basic wage figure for able seamen referred to above. This link between the ILO’s maritime labour standards and international collective negotiations concerning seafarers’ conditions of work should be retained in the future with the MLC 2006 replacing the older existing ILO maritime labour standards. 

Useful resources

• International Shipping Federation
• International Transport Workers' Federation
• International Maritime Employers' Committee (IMEC)
• International Bargaining Forum
  - Information from IMEC
  - Information from ITF