Tag: MLC Convention

From 1 January, the Danish Maritime Authority will survey all Danish passenger ships in a new way

AMSA has issued a direction to Indonesian flagged multipurpose ship MV Meratus Sangatta not to enter any port in Australia

AMSA issues Marine Notice The Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) has issued Marine Notice to advise vessel owners, operators, masters and crews of AMSA's approach to implementing the Maritime Labour Convention, 2006 (MLC, 2006) requirements in relation to the maximum continuous period that a seafarer can serve on board a vessel without taking leave. It also outlines how these requirements will be enforced during AMSA port State control (PSC) inspections.BackgroundMLC, 2006 entered into force both in Australia and internationally on 20 August 2013. Since that time, AMSA has incorporated MLC, 2006 inspections within its structured PSC inspection regime.Recently, AMSA inspectors have identified occurrences of seafarer service periods extending well beyond 11 months. While AMSA has received complaints in relation to these occurrences, in some cases the crew members have subsequently agreed to additional service extensions. However, the AMSA inspectors have not always been comfortable that such service extensions have met the "mutual agreement" requirements of MLC, 2006 Regulation 2.1 - Seafarers' Employment Agreements.MLC, 2006The relevant sections of MLC, 2006, Regulation 2.4 - Entitlement to leave and Regulation 2.5 - Repatriation, which make reference to the maximum continuous period that a seafarer can serve on board a vessel without taking leave, ...

The second and third anniversary dates intermediate inspection of a vessel is carried out for compliance with MLC, 2006

The Maritime Union of New Zealand has welcomed news that New Zealand will be ratifying the Maritime Labour Convention

Concern persists over unpaid wages despite positive MLC enforcement

Liberia's MLC 2006 Annual Report for 2013 The Liberian Maritime Authority has just released the mandatory MLC Annual Report for 2013. This report confirms that Liberia's proactive approach to enforcement of the Maritime Labour Convention (MLC) 2006 has resulted in an extremely low deficiency rate for Liberian-flag ships.LISCR CEO Scott Bergeron says, "Liberia has consistently led the way on MLC. It was the first flag state to ratify MLC 2006 and has been tireless in applying its training and implementation procedures. Liberia's first MLC Annual Report confirms this. Prior to the MLC implementation date of August 20th, 2013, a total of 2,238 ships were inspected and issued MLC certificates by the Liberian Administration and its Recognised Organisations."The Annual Report further confirms that for the reporting period of 20 August 2013 to 31 December 2013 an additional 613 Liberian-flag ships have undergone MLC inspection, 54 per cent by Liberia's own MLC inspectors and the remainder by classification societies authorised as Recognised Organisations. Moreover, a total of 85 per cent of these inspections resulted in no deficiencies being found.Meanwhile, the majority of deficiencies noted in connection with the remaining 15 per cent were directly related to issues of the sort one might ...

Nautilus International welcomes guidance from ILO on how companies should prevent workplace violence On United Nations day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, Nautilus International has welcomedguidance from the International Labour Organisation on how companies should prevent workplace violence.The guidance, which covers how companies should implement theoccupational safety and health provision of the Maritime Labour Convention, includes paragraphs on what constitutes workplace violence and calls on shipowners to develop workplace violence prevention policies.The guidance also calls on shipowners to carry out training on the factors that contribute to workplace violence and the Union is encouraging companies to use thevideo, joint industry guidance and workbook especially developed by the shipping industry for this training.The 20-minute video, guidance and accompanying training workbook identifies bullying and harassment practices which can occur onboard and calls for a zero tolerance approach and cultural shift onboard EU-flagged vessels in the future. Nautilus has also produced its own guidance'Protect and Respect' which includes its commitment to support members if they are bullied or harassed at sea.'The safe and efficient operation of any ship relies on good team work, and crew morale can be severely affected by a culture of harassment and bullying,' explained Mr Dickinson.'This is ...

113 ships detained for MLC related deficiencies 20 August 2014 marked the first anniversary of the entry into force of theMaritime Labour Convention (MLC, 2006). During these first 12 months 113ships were detained by one of the Paris MoU Authorities for MLC-relateddeficiencies.This represents 17.4% of the total number of detentions (649) inthe Paris MoU during this period.During the first year 7.4% (3,447) of the total number of 46,798 deficienciesrecorded was linked to the MLC, while 160 (4.6%) were marked as a ground fordetention resulting in 113 detained ships.Detainable deficiencies were mostfrequently recorded in the areas "payment of wages" (39,5%), and "manning levelsfor the ship" (28.6%). Other areas with high deficiency levels are "health and safetyand accident prevention" (43.1%), "food and catering" (15.4%) and"accommodation" (10%).Only the member States of the Paris MoU which have ratified the MLC on or before20 August 2012 were entitled to conduct PSC inspections on MLC requirementsfrom 20 August 2013. As a result the following twelve member States startedenforcing the MLC, 2006 from 20 August 2013: Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Cyprus,Denmark, Latvia, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, the Russian Federation, Spainand Sweden.During the first year of implementation, the following member States began toenforce MLC, 2006: Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, ...

Maritime occupational safety experts agree on guidelines to bolster MLC 2006 Recognizing the special needs of seafarers, experts have agreed on guidelines to assist governments to implement occupational safety and health provisions previously set down in the Maritime Labour Convention, 2006 (MLC, 2006).Intended to provide supplementary practical information to be reflected in national laws and other measures, the OSH guidelines deal with the special maritime working environment. This includes demanding physical working conditions, potentially hazardous tasks, isolation, long hours of work, rigid organizational structures and high levels of stress and fatigue."We are very pleased with the outcome of the work of the expert meeting this week. We believe in promoting compliance with the MLC and the new guidelines that we have agreed will make an effective contribution to this," said Tim Springett, Vice-Chairman for the Employers' Group.The guidelines were discussed by a total of 102 delegates, including, six government, six shipowner and six seafarer experts, observers and advisers from 42 other governments, and observers from intergovernmental organizations and non-governmental organizations.The meeting, held in Geneva from 13-17 October, addressed all areas of seafarers' occupational safety and health, including such areas as alcohol and drug abuse, violence and harassment, and infectious diseases. ...