Once the convention will enter into force, any ship will have to comply – ‘no more favorable treatment’
S4S: Would you please give us some information about the Maritime Labor Convention?
TT : The Maritime Labor Convention (MLC) 2006 is considered to be the fourth pillar in the international regulatory regime for more quality shipping, complementing the other three key conventions of IMO which are namely SOLAS, STCW and MARPOL. At the present moment 19 countries have ratified the instrument. My opinion about what actually makes the convention so important is the part of the clause that contains of ‘no more favorable treatment’, which entails that once the convention will enter into force, no matter whether the ship’s flag has ratified or not ratified the convention, that ship unfortunately or fortunately will be subject to a port state control in order to ensure compliance with the conditions of MLC 2006.
S4S: Let’s suppose that the convention enters into force. Tell us about the next day in the registries.
TT : The registry will have to establish an effective system for the inspection of maritime labor conditions. Possibly by having to put in place also some kind of agreements with its Recognized Organizations making certain that national standards are interpreted and understood correctly and properly by ship-owners, by operators, by port state controls, by nautical inspectors, by Recognized Organizations and that an effective system for certification is also in place in order to ensure that all of those documents and their sequence which has to be followed before leading to the issue of Maritime Labor certificate. Marshall Islands ratified the convention in September 2007 and have established and encourage all to use a voluntary period.
S4S : What happens at the moment within the registry you are representing? Is the initiative you just mentioned being popular among the ships registered?
TT : At the moment, we have issued over 185 declarations of Maritime Labor Compliance Part 1 (DMLC Part1) and there are 31 ships of voluntary compliance. A statement of compliance is actually the Maritime Labor certificate called differently because the convention has not yet entered into force. Nevertheless, we have instructing our Recognized Organizations that all those ships that have been issued with the statement of compliance, when the convention will enter into force these statements will be grandfathered automatically for the issue of a full term Maritime Labor certificate without any additional shipboard inspection.
S4S: Are there any points in the convention that you would like to stress out?
TT : First, I would advise people not to be fearful and contact flag states and recognized organizations for ascertaining applicability of what they had been advised of. Then, there are important points like the requirements imposed by the convention on how ships will be constructed and about some of their equipment on board. It should be underlined that this clause of the convention applies only on those ships that will be constructed on or after the convention enters into force. Also the standard of the convention related to social security in the seafarers’ employment agreement is important and is being clarified in Marshall Islands regulations. Finally, the regulation of rest or work hours is very important. Rest periods for seafarers are appropriately provided to help take care of the cumulative effects of fatigue.
Thanos Theocharis works at Regulatory Affairs European Liaison, Marshall Islands Registry
Above interview is adapted from Thanos’ presentation at 2nd Safety4Sea Forum
You can view Thanos’ presentation video