Seafarers
An estimated 90% of world trade makes use of maritime or river transport, depending on seafarers to operate ships. (Note 1) Many seafarers ply waters distant from their home ports and call at many ports of different countries. Seafarers and shipowners are often of different nationalities, and ships often operate under a flag different from their origin or ownership. Only standards observed by all seafaring nations can guarantee adequate protection for such workers detached from national boundaries. Seafarers are also frequently exposed to difficult working conditions. The ship is both their home and workplace for prolonged periods of time; working and living conditions are therefore of primary importance. Moreover, seafarers are exposed to many unique occupational risks. They face exposure to extreme weather conditions and the possibility of wrecking and sinking. Ships pose many physical hazards, from moving cargo and equipment to toxic materials and chemicals. Working far from home, seafarers are vulnerable to social exploitation and abuse, non-payment of wages, non-compliance with contracts, and exposure to poor diet and living conditions. Some seafarers have been abandoned without wages in foreign ports.
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Selected relevant ILO instruments
To protect the world's seafarers and their contribution to international trade, the ILO has adopted over 60 conventions and recommendations through special maritime sessions of the International Labour Conference. The ILO's maritime standards deal with almost all aspects of work in relation to seafaring (protection of children and young persons, vocational guidance and training, safety and health, security of employment, social security, and so on) but they also cover specific subjects related to the particular employment situation of workers in the maritime industry, such as articles of agreement, wages, hours of work and manning, recruitment and placement, certification of qualification, and identity documents.
- The Merchant Shipping (Minimum Standards) Convention, 1976 (No. 147) - [ratifications
and its Protocol of 1996 provide general standards for the protection of seafarers. These instruments require a ratifying state to draw up laws or regulations governing safety standards, including standards of competency and hours of work and manning, appropriate social security measures, and shipboard conditions of employment and shipboard living arrangements for seagoing ships registered in its territory. States must also ensure that provisions of laws and regulations are substantially equivalent to conventions enumerated in the appendix to the Convention (covering freedom of association and collective bargaining, minimum age, social security, safety, health and welfare, certificates of competency, and repatriation of seafarers), in cases were they have not ratified the corresponding instruments.
- Further relevant instruments
Other relevant instruments include :
- Seafarers' Identity Documents Convention (Revised), 2003 (No. 185) - [ratifications]
- Seafarers' Hours of Work and the Manning of Ships Convention, 1996 (No. 180) - [ratifications]
- Recruitment and Placement of Seafarers Convention, 1996 (No. 179) - [ratifications]
- Labour Inspection (Seafarers) Convention, 1996 (No. 178) - [ratifications]
- Repatriation of Seafarers Convention (Revised), 1987 (No. 166) - [ratifications]
- Social Security (Seafarers) Convention (Revised), 1987 (No. 165) - [ratifications]
- Health Protection and Medical Care (Seafarers) Convention, 1987 (No. 164) - [ratifications]
- Seafarers' Welfare Convention, 1987 (No. 163) - [ratifications]
- Seafarers' Annual Leave with Pay Convention, 1976 (No. 146) - [ratifications]
- Continuity of Employment (Seafarers) Convention, 1976 (No. 145) - [ratifications]
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Consolidation of ILO maritime standards
The ILO is currently in the process of drawing up a consolidated maritime labour convention which aims at embodying all up-to-date maritime standards as well as the fundamental principles set out in other international labour standards, in particular the fundamental conventions. The new instrument will place greater emphasis on compliance and enforcement measures in order to ensure equitable conditions for all countries and shipowners that are concerned with providing decent conditions of work for seafarers. It will also contain a simplified amendment procedure allowing the technical details of the convention to be rapidly updated.
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Further information
Note 1 - Shipping facts website: <>http://www.marisec.org/shippingfacts/index.htm (consulted October 2004).
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