Seychelles commended for ratifying key ILO convention |09 July 2014

Seychelles is committed to building a more secure and responsible maritime workforce and a more socially responsible shipping industry.

This became evident following the signing earlier this year by Seychelles of the Maritime Labour Convention (MLC) 2006.

As a matter of fact, the ratification of this convention by Seychelles was discussed at the International Labour Organisation (ILO) conference held in June 2014 in Geneva, as it contributed towards compliance with the country’s international obligations.

The ratification depicts the government’s support towards the continued improvement of working and living conditions of workers, notably seafarers on board Seychelles flagged vessels, thus recognising their contribution to the national economy, in particular the blue economy.

The MLC (2006), widely known as the “seafarers’ bill of rights”, was adopted in Geneva in February 2006 at the International Labour Conference as a new international convention which consolidates almost all of the 70 existing ILO maritime labour standards in a single, modern and globally applicable legal instrument.

The convention is unique in that it aims to achieve both decent work and to secure economic interests through fair competition for quality ship owners.

The convention covers almost every aspect of the work and life of seafarers on board including: minimum age; employment agreements; hours of work or rest; payment of wages; paid annual leave; repatriation at the end of contract; onboard medical care; the use of licensed private recruitment and placement services; accommodation, food and catering; health and safety protection; and accident prevention and seafarers’ complaint handling.

The convention establishes minimum working and living standards for the estimated more than 1.5 million seafarers around the world working on ships flying the flags of ratifying countries and whose work is essential to international trade as well as to an increasingly important form of tourism and recreational activity.

It is also an essential step forward in ensuring a level playing field for countries and shipowners.

The convention was designed to be applicable globally, easy to understand, readily updatable and uniformly enforced and as such will become the "fourth pillar" of the international regulatory regime for quality shipping, complementing the key conventions of the International Maritime Organisation (IMO).

Seychelles is the 55th member state of the ILO to ratify the convention, and the fourth among the States parties to the Memorandum of Understanding on Port State Control for the Indian Ocean Region – after Australia, France and South Africa.

The ratification of the convention is a project under the Seychelles Decent Work Country Programme (2011-2015) of the Ministry of Labour and Human Resource Development. Through the ratification, the convention will facilitate the movement of Sepec (Seychelles Petroleum Company) tankers operating in foreign ports of a member and reduce costs in unnecessary delays by a member’s port state control. Sepec currently employs around 125 workers on its tankers.

In her congratulatory note following Seychelles’ ratification of the convention, Cleopatra Doumbia-Henry, director of the International Labour Standards Department, stated: “I wish to congratulate the government of Seychelles not only for having become party to this innovative and extremely important instrument for an island State but also for having systematically planned and completed all the different steps towards ratification and effective implementation of that convention.

Over the past years, the government of Seychelles, with the help of the office, initiated the process with a gap analysis that identified the level of conformity of the existing maritime legislation and the provisions of the MLC (2006). This work was then examined and validated by the country’s tripartite constituents and later facilitated legislative drafting and the adoption of the necessary amendments to relevant laws and regulations. Having laid such solid foundations for MLC (2006) implementation, Seychelles, I believe, is now well prepared to ‘navigate’ through the new convention which aims at establishing a level playing field for quality shipowners and ensuring worldwide protection of the rights of seafarers.”

Seychelles has ratified in total 37 ILO conventions, 31 of which are in force, including the eight fundamental ones. Among the ILO conventions in force, seven relate to the field of maritime and six of them are exclusively revised under the MLC (2006). This means the ratification of the MLC (2006) will simplify its reporting obligations, whereby it will report only on the consolidated Maritime Labour Convention rather than the multiple conventions which were previously ratified.

The MLC (2006) is the fourth most important maritime convention and will play a key role in maritime law in the coming years. Hence, the ratification of the MLC (2006) by a small island developing state such as Seychelles showcases the government’s commitment towards the building of a more secure and responsible maritime workforce and a more socially responsible shipping industry.”

The Ministry of Labour and Human Resource Development has conveyed its appreciation to all stakeholders who were involved in the consultations, notably the Ministry of Home Affairs and Transport, Seychelles Maritime Safety Administration (SMSA), Sepec and the Attorney General’s office.
The MLC (2006) will enter into force for Seychelles one year post ratification.

Contributed by the Ministry of Labour and Human Resource Development