The Consolidated Maritime Labour Convention
On 23 February 2006, the Consolidated Maritime Labour
Convention was adopted by the International Labour
Organisation in Geneva. Delegates at the 94th International
Labour Conference (Maritime) voted by 314 to 0 in favour of
the new convention. There were four abstentions.
The Convention establishes appropriate regulations to
ensure that the following principles are fulfilled:
- Every seafarer has the right to a safe and secure
workplace that complies with safety standards
- Every seafarer has a right to fair terms of
employment
- Every seafarer has the right to decent working and
living conditions onboard ship
- Every seafarer has a right to health protection,
medical care, welfare measures and other forms of social
protection
Article IV
“The Convention applies to all ships whether publicly or
privately owned, ordinarily engaged in commercial
activities, other than ships engaged in fishing or in
similar pursuits and ships of traditional build such as
dhows and junks.”
According to a statement released by the ILO on the
approbation of the Convention:
“The new Convention clearly sets out, in plain language,
a seafarers' "bill of rights" while allowing a sufficient
degree of national discretion to deliver those rights with
transparency and accountability. The Convention also
contains provisions allowing it to keep in step with the
needs of the industry, and help secure universal application
and enforcement.”
The Director-General of the ILO, Mr Juan Somavia, said of
the Convention
"We have made maritime labour history today. We have
adopted a Convention that spans continents and oceans,
providing a comprehensive labour charter for the world's 1.2
million or more seafarers and addressing the evolving
realities and needs of a sector that handles 90 per cent of
the world's trade."
Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, Apostolic Nuncio to the United
Nations and Permanent Observer of the Holy See at the
International Labour Conference was among the delegates
speaking in favour of the Convention. Archbishop Tomasi
called the Convention “an indispensable tool of decent work”
which would “provide the appropriate environment for the
emergence of a new maritime world order”. He reminded that
Conference that
“various international and national organisations and
many individuals, inspired by their Christian faith or by a
genuine sense of human solidarity, and specifically reaching
out to the People of the Sea, are working for a
globalisation with a human face, where benefits accrue to
everyone without exclusion of any category of people.”
In response to the Convention, Cardinal Hamao, then
President of the Pontifical Council for Migrants and
Itinerant People, said:
“Our Pontifical Council warmly welcomes this new
instrument for the protection of seafarers and their
families. This Convention will make a great difference to
the life of the 1.2 million seafarers and their families, as
it will ensure that the health, safety, working conditions
and general welfare of seafarers are given primary
importance. To make it become a reality, we must encourage
and urge all the member States who have voted this
Convention to ensure that it is now ratified and properly
implemented worldwide.” |