Pacific Island Countries benefit from ILO Maritime Labour Convention (MLC,2006)

A new “bill of rights” – the ILO’s Maritime Labour Convention – comes into force, ensuring protection for the world’s 1.5 million seafarers and fair competition for shipowners.

Press release | Pacific Island Countries | 26 August 2013
The International Labour Organization’s Maritime Labour Convention (MLC, 2006) came into force on 20 August. The Convention is a worker and employer led initiative, specifically developed to achieve the twin goals of ensuring a ‘level playing field’ for ship owners and secure decent work for more than 1.2 million seafarers across the world. 

The maritime sector plays a significant role in the Pacific region and is a particularly important source of jobs and income in small economies such as the Marshall Islands, Palau, Kiribati and Tuvalu, all of whom have ratified the Convention.  While remittances from seafarers employed on foreign ships constitute an important source of income, such employment can also present significant risks for seafarers. The MLC,2006 provides important protections for these workers. 

The ILO Office for Pacific Island Countries is working closely with its ratifying member States to facilitate the effective and timely implementation of this new Convention. For most countries the initial focus is to ensure maritime and labour laws and policies, fully apply the MLC. The ILO Office of Pacific Island Countries has provided support to countries in the region undertake gap analyses to assist in identifying an changes to existing legislation to give effect to the Convention. The Office has also provided assistance to enable officials in the region to attend training at the Martime Labour Academy at the ILO Training Centre in Turin.

“The relevance of the Maritime Labour Convention to the Pacific Island Countries (PIC) is unquestionable, “ said ILO Office for Pacific Islands Director, Mr David Lamotte. “ A number of these Pacific Island Countries have training institutions preparing workers for the industries, many workers and families deriving their income from the industry, and a number of PIC’s are by global standards significant flag States.”

The new Convention becomes binding international law as of 20 August. It needed ratification by 30 ILO member States, representing more than 33 per cent of the world’s gross shipping tonnage to enter into force. To date, more than 45 ILO member States representing more than 70 per cent of global gross shipping tonnage have ratified the Convention.

The ILO has a range of resources available to support Member states understand the benefits of ratifying the Convention and how it can apply. Further information about these resources are included in the key resource section of this newsletter.

For more information contact:
Anne Boyd
Labour Law Expert
ILO Office for Pacific Island Countries
boyda@ilo.org