Enforced worldwide
Maritime Labour Convention (MLC) 2006, a comprehensive convention that contains all aspects that outline the working conditions and proper area to live for seafarers, may come into force as early as end of 2012.
For Brunei Darussalam, it would be very important to implement the convention because it will be enforced worldwide.
In addition, MLC 2006 requires all countries to enforce the requirement on all commercial ships that Brunei to join Maritime enter ports and this involve BLNG vessels registered under
Brunei Darussalam that travel between Brunei and Japan.
To better understand the Maritime Labour Convention (MLC) 2006 and to fulfill the requirement of MLC 2006 in terms of implementation, a briefing was held by the Marine Department at the Ministry of Communications yesterday.
The Director of Marine Department, Hj Omar bin Hj Sirat, in a speech said, “Maritime Labour Convention (MLC) 2006 was established to give full protection to more than 1.2 million seafarers around the world.
The aim of the convention is to introduce the appropriateness in the career of seafarers and maintain the economic importance in balanced competitiveness for all quality ship owners “It was estimated that 90 per cent of world trade is transported on ships which shows that seafarers are very important to worldwide trade and economy as well as the global trade system,” he added.
He also highlighted that the Maritime Labour Convention (MLC) 2006 is seen as a mechanism that can help ensure that the quality of ships continue to be maintained while substandard ships will be eliminated.
Maritime Labour Convention (MLC) 2006, he described, “is a comprehensive document that contains all aspects that outline the working conditions and proper area to live for seafarers.
It also covers the minimum needs for sailors to work in the ships, the conditions of work as well as working hours and hours of breaks, salary, leave, food, safety of the working place as well as health protection, welfare and social safety security”.
In addition, he said, “The convention also contributes to the International Maritime Organisation on protection of marine environment and safety and security of ships.
It creates strong enforcement and compliance based on the inspection of flag state and port state control that are carried out on all ships around the world.”
The Director of Marine Department said, “Currently, 106 countries that attended the International Labour Organisation Convention on February 23, 2006 in Geneva, Switzerland have passed the convention. To enable the MLC 2006 to be enforced internationally, it has to be accepted by 30 member countries and 33 per cent from the combined total of world vessels.
The combined total of vessels was achieved in February 2009 with the confirmation received from Panama and Norway other than Liberia, Bahamas and Marshall islands.
To date, the convention has been accepted by 12 countries including Switzerland and will be enforced 12 months after all requirements are met.
“In Brunei Darussalam context,” he said “after becoming a member of the International Maritime Organisation on December 31, 1984, Brunei has moved forward to be involved in the international arena by carrying out various process of changes to be fulfill the international requirement that are related with the welfare of seafarers by setting up a number of regulations in line with the current situation which has listed Brunei in the White List in fulfilling the requirement of IMO.”
The talk was delivered by Encik Sabarudin Md Jan from Bureau Veritas classification body, Malaysia. — Courtesy of Borneo Bulletin.
Source: Brunei Bulletin