Work in Fishing Convention
On 14 June 2007, the Work in Fishing Convention was
adopted by the International Labour Organisation in Geneva.
The Convention is designed to ensure that workers in the
fishing sector are guaranteed fair and dignified working
conditions. Measures cover the lives of fishers from
recruitment to retirement. They include:
- improved occupational safety and health and medical care
at sea
- the right for sick or injured fishers to receive care
ashore
- the right to take sufficient rest
- protection of work agreements
- the same social security protection as other workers
- regulations for the construction of deepsea fishing boats
to provide appropriate living conditions
Adoption of the Convention should improve the lives of
the world’s 30 million fishers who work on an estimated four
million fishing boats. The size of boats and duration of
voyages varies greatly. Around 1.5 million fishers work in
industrial and deepsea fishing. However, the vast majority
of fishers work on small boats in developing countries.
These countries are also the major labour-supply nations to
the fishing sector. Asia is home to 82% of the world’s
fishers.
Delegates voted by 437 to 2 in favour of the Convention.
There were 22 abstentions. The accompanying Recommendation
was adopted by 443 votes to 0 with 19 abstentions.
Conventions of the ILO are binding for the countries that
ratify them. Recommendations are not binding but provide
guidance.
The Convention will come into effect when it is ratified
by ten of the ILO’s 180 member states. Of these ten, eight
must be coastal nations. It replaces the seven existing ILO
standards on fishing which were adopted between 1920 – 1966
and which covered only a small number of the world’s
fishers. An earlier version of the Convention was rejected
in 2005 when several nations with large fishing fleets
abstained from the vote.
ILO Director-General Juan Somavia said of the new
Convention
Extending the net of social protection and decent work
to fishers is an important part of the ILO’s commitment to
social justice. In the fishing sector many people face
extraordinary and unpredictable hazards, often working long
hours in harsh conditions to bring food to our markets. This
new instrument will help protect them against exploitation.
A statement from SAMUDRA, the International Collective in
Support of Fishworkers, commented
Implemented well, the Convention can put an end to the
inhuman treatment of fishworkers, particularly of migrant
fishers on board distant-water fishing vessels.
Archbishop Silvano M. Tomasi, Permanent Observer of the
Holy See to the United Nations Office, released the
following statement prior to the adoption of the Convention:
The proposal of a Convention and Recommendation
Concerning Work in the Fishing Sector represents a sign of
major progress. It is estimated that some 40 million people
worldwide work in the fishing industry; 1.5 million of these
are industrial or deep-sea fishers, while the rest are
traditional coastal fishers.
The harsh reality of the work environment for fishers,
their confined space in the fishing vessels and their
vulnerability; their long working hours causing excessive
fatigue that can result in serious occupational accidents;
the exploitation of children in deep-sea diving who are
exposed to injuries and death; and the excessive long
periods away from the family; these and similar other
considerations have prompted careful negotiations that
hopefully will now be brought to conclusion with an
additional instrument of protection.
In fact, the proposed Convention and Recommendation can
also provide the basis for the elimination of abuse and
discrimination inflicted on industrial fishers through the
illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing on distant water
vessels within the system of open registry.
Inter-related issues of justice, safety and health demand
a concerted response to the legitimate claim by fishers that
their rights be protected and that their quality of life be
advanced. Solidarity cannot extend, of course, to permit
over-fishing or to causing damage to ocean life. Such
solidarity should instead help fishers and countries that,
due to lack of resources, sell their fishing rights to
richer countries with evident threat to the survival of
small and coastal fishers and consequent destruction of the
fish habitat. |