Maritime Labour Convention; 2006

The International Labour Organisation (ILO) is the oldest specialised agency of

UN. ILO has developed 68 maritime labour conventions applicable to seafarers

and shipping. The Maritime Labour Convention (MLC) has been developed by the

ILO.

Reasons for the development of Maritime Labour Convention (MLC)

There are basically FOUR reasons as follows:

1. Some of the conventions are very old and dating back to 1922, which have

NO applicability to seafarers of 21st century.

2. IMO Conventions (SOLAS, MARPOL, CLC etc.) require a PROOF of

implementation on board. The proof is in the form of the FLAG STATE

conducting surveys onboard and issuing the ship with the relevant

certificate. Sadly, none of the 68 ILO conventions of ILO required such a

proof of implementation. With the result, the Flag States left it to the

ship owner to maintain the labour standards AS THEY DESIRED –

meaning, there was NO CONTROL.

3. Since there was no obligation on the ship owner, to the Flag State, for

maintaining labour standards, they did whatever they liked – some ship

owners looking after their seafarers, but majority of them treating the

seafarers like “slaves”.

4. We know that the objective of PSC is to ensure that any foreign ship

visiting their ports is in NO WAY A THREAT to their territory. Whether

the ship is maintaining the required labour standards onboard or not, is in

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no way a threat to the country’s territory. And also, the PSC considered

the labour standards issue to be a n internal matter between the ship

owner and his seafarers. With the result checking of labour standards

onboard never formed part of any PSC inspection.

The combination of all of above led to the member countries to rectify the

situation and this led to the development of MLC. MLC was adopted in February

2006 and came into force on 20th August 2013. For the first time in history

of shipping it is now required that before a seafarer joins a ship, he should be

made aware of his rights. The MLC thus is also being referred to as “Bill of

Rights for a seafarer”. Also, MLC has given a very broad definition of the term

“seafarer” – it basically says that any person who is on a gainful employment on a

ship (gainful employment – you work and in return you are paid wages) is a

seafarer. It therefore applies to everyone from the Master to the hotel staff

on cruise ships. Also, for the purpose of MLC, New Ship means any ship whose

keel is laid after the entry into force of the convention (i. e. after 20 th August

2013).

Layout of MLC

The MLC is divided into FOR layers as follows:

1. Articles.

2. Regulations.

3. Code A (Mandatory).

4. Code B (non-mandatory – it acts as a guideline to follow the mandatory

Coda A).

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The Codes are divided into FIVE chapters known as Titles as follows:

TITLE 1 – Minimum Requirements to Work on Ships

This deals with the minimum age requirements, such as – (a) no person (including

the cadets) below the age of 16 years is allowed to work on ships (b) no person

below the age of 18 years is allowed to work at night where the night period is

defined as 2100 hrs to 0500 hrs.

TITLE 2 – Conditions of Employment

This deals with contractual conditions, hours of work and rest, leave,

repatriation and a written undertaking by the owner that he is responsible to

medical and compensation in case of injury and death. Hours of work are –

maximum 14 hrs in 24 hour period and 72 hours in 7 day period; hours of rest –

minimum 10 hours in 24 hours period and 77 hours in 7 day period.

TITLE 3 – Accommodation, Recreation, Food and Catering

Accommodation – On new ships – (a) no more twin-sharing cabins (including for

cadets) (c) advised to provide attached toilets, but if common toilets provided

then very strict specifications to be adhered to (c) minimum height of deck-

head in accommodation increased; for existing ships – acoustic and vibration

levels to be monitored regularly.

Recreation – for the first time the owner has a legal responsibility to provide

recreation onboard, access to internet and e-mail and organise conveyance in

ports from time to time.

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 Maritime Labour Convention; 2006

Food and Catering – the cook is now required to be trained and certified by the

Flag State.

TITLE 4 – Medical and Social Protection

The existing medical facilities have been enhanced to include dental and eye

treatments.

TITLE 5 – Compliance and Enforcement

Compliance is the responsibility of the Flag State. They will conduct labour

survey on 14 parameters based on Title 1 to Title 4 and issue to the ship

“Declaration of Maritime Labour Compliance (DMLC)” along with a Maritime

Labour Certificate (ML Certificate), which will be statutory certificate and

valid for 5 years with annual, intermediate and renewal labour surveys. It is

important to note that the ML Certificate is invalid in the absence of DMLC.

Enforcement is the responsibility of PSC. They have volunteered to enforce it

for the benefit of the world seafarers and have thus given the powers to detain

a ship if the MLC requirements are not found to be met.

Also, every seafarer has the right to complain to Flag State or PSC, but first

has the obligation to follow the “Complaints Procedure” of the Company, which

will be part of the Labour Manual onboard.

Finally, the MLC is considered a big step in the welfare of the seafarer and is

being called the “fourth pillar of maritime operations” – the other three pillars

being SOLAS, MARPOL and STCW.

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Duties as an Officer

I’ll ensure the following:

 The seafarer is aware of his rights and can show his copy to PSC when

asked.

 The copy of his contract is in his safe custody to be shown to PSC when

asked.

 Ensure the night time age requirements are strictly adhered to.

 Frequent and regular rounds of accommodation, stores, hygiene,

cleanliness and upkeep.

 Ensure that Chief Engineer is regularly monitoring the acoustic and

vibration level.

 Ensure that the recreation equipment is in good condition and usable at all

times.

 Keep a very close contact with the compliment of the ship to ensure that

any of their complaints, if any, is immediately addressed while adhering to

the Company’s complain procedure.

 Keep the ship always “happy” to ensure no reasons for a complaint to

arise.

 Ensure the ship to be in a state of readiness for a labour survey anytime.

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