Help to crews
Representatives from across the local shipping sector will today sit an exam at the end of a week-long course on a new international maritime labour convention due to enter into force in 2012. The new convention will place greater emphasis on ship operators, flag states and coastal countries to ensure good conditions on board merchant ships.
The shipping industry is the lifeblood of global trade but, while many companies employ mariners on good terms, others are more lax.
Some seafarers have little option but to work in unhygienic, sometimes dangerous conditions, and often for little money.
The International Labour Organisations Maritime Labour Convention 2006 aims to address these issues by consolidating and expanding existing labour protection agreements.
By the time it comes into force, the convention will have been ratified by numerous countries responsible for large fleets. That means it will be harder for unscrupulous shipowners to ignore their responsibilities.
The convention was drafted to ensure that seafarers enjoy decent working and living conditions on a ship, said Captain Stephen Chalk, senior marine ILO specialist at Lloyds Register, one of the worlds leading ship classification societies.
This is what its all about.
Capt Chalk was speaking during a break in the course that he is running this week in Gibraltar together with David Lloyd, another Lloyds Register specialist.
Alongside theoretical analysis, the course involved role-playing scenarios designed to teach students how a labour inspection under the new convention would work in practice on board a ship.
The course, largely organised by Gibraltarian Lloyds Register surveyor Matthew Byrne, attracted interested from a wide range of shipping interests.
There were representatives of local companies that operate vessels in the bay, as well as officials from the Gibraltar Maritime Administration, whose inspectors will be tasked with checking onboard conditions once the convention is implemented.
Also attending was Julio Berzosa, the senior port state control inspector at Capitania Marítima in Algeciras.
Source: Gibraltar Chronicle