Resources on Shipping, ports, fisheries, and inland waterways sector

  1. Canada Ratifies Maritime Labour Convention

    18 June 2010

    ILO TV interviews Cleopatra Doumbia- Henry, Director of the International Labour Standards Department about Canada's ratification of the ILO Maritime Labour Convention. "It demonstrates a re-engagement by Canada with international labour standards and it's the first convention ratified by Canada in ten years," says Ms. Doumbia-Henry. The labour standard, sometimes called the “super convention” because of its scope for protecting the working conditions of seafarers, was adopted by the 94th International Labour Conference in Geneva in February 2006.

  2. New Skills and New Faces Revive Argentina’s Naval Industry

    05 June 2008

    South of Buenos Aires is Mar del Plata, a popular seaside resort and one of Argentina’s major ports. For years Mar del Plata had an important ship-building industry, but when the government liberalised the economy in the 1990s most of the ship-yards were forced to downsize or close down. The AREA programme has helped them get back on their feet, by bringing workers, employers and learning institutions together to address the needs of the industry.

  3. Denmark: Port State Control

    19 January 2006

    Long before talk of globalization, seafarers lived and worked in a globalized world, with working conditions subject to 60 different labour conventions and recommendations. The International Labour Organisation has now brought all the different rules and regulations together under one maritime labour convention. ILO TV goes on board a North Sea oil tanker in Denmark to check that all is ship-shape.

  4. The vital link : [computer file] video on cd-rom / International Labour Office, Sectoral Activities, MARIT Team.

    29 May 2003

    Presents an account of the sometimes difficult living and working conditions of seafarers under the background of ILO's Maritime Conventions. Includes statements from shipowners, workers federations and others.

  5. CONDITIONS IN THE MARITIME INDUSTRY

    07 December 2001

    More than 90 percent of the world’s trade tonnage is carried by a merchant fleet of some 50,000 ships. According to a report from the International Labour Organization (ILO), changes in the financing and management of these ships has led to deregulation and more flexible working conditions for seafarers, but these conditions are not always to their advantage.

  6. ABANDONED IN AMSTERDAM

    05 December 2001

    It used to be that a seafarer would only abandon ship under the most dire circumstances. But more and more, it is the seafarer who is finding himself abandoned, stranded and forgotten in foreign ports all over the world. It is a growing problem as ILO Television explains:

  7. Shipbreakers

    22 October 2001

    On 20 kilometers of sloping beaches in Bangladesh, an army of men daily perform some of the world’s toughest work. Tankers that survived years of high-seasoned heavy loads are now dismantled as they were built, by hand.