MPA Singapore Shipping Circular 09/2014
The MPA Singapore has issued Shipping Circular No.09 to clarify important issues of ILO Maritime Labour Convention 2006 regarding Singapore’s legislation, Seafarer’s Employment Agreement (SEA), Offical Log Book and Medicines and also Medical Equipment.
Singapore’s national legislation to give effect to the MLC will enter into forceon 01 April 2014 and are listed at Annex A of the MPA Singpaore Circular 09/2014 (Please see below)
Singapore ships shall comply with the requirement of carrying the SEA onboard. There is no requirement for the SEA to be lodged with the Director of Marine,but must be submitted when requested by MPA. The minimum information required in a SEA is listed in Annex B of the Circular.
In addition to the SEA, Singapore ships shall continue to use the crew agreement (also known as Articles of Agreement) , which contains detais regarding the engagement and discharge of all crew on board a Singapore ship, until 10 April 2014. After which, shipowners, shipmanagers or masters are required to report any changes in the details of a Singapore ship, including the trading areas or upon registration with the SRS, using the Electronic Ship Information (ESI). Existing crew agreements on board Singapore ships will be automaticallyconverted to the ESI on 10 April 2014. There is no validity period for the report submitted in the ESI. The report in theESI will only need to be re-submitted if there is:
a. a change in the ship’s trading areas; or
b. a change of the shipowner or shipmanager, together with a change ofthe entire existing crew on board.
The shipowner, shipmanager or master shall maintain an updated list of thepersons on board a Singapore ship, and notify MPA of all persons engaged anddischarged on board using an Electronic Crew Change Form or via Marinet. This issimilar to the current practice of notifying MPA of crew changes.
Following the change of reporting requirements from 10 April 2014, Singaporeships are not required to update any crew change into existing crew agreements.Such crew agreements shall be returned to MPA at the next earliest opportunity.
From 10 April 2014 onwards, Singapore ships shall produce the official logbook or copies of extracts of it to the Director under the following circumstances:
a. upon demand by the Director;
b. the ship has been suspended from the Singapore Registry of Ships;
c. there is a change of the shipowner or shipmanager, together with achange of entire existing crew on board.
There are updated requirements for the medicines and medical equipment tobe kept on board Singapore ships. These are laid out in the Merchant Shipping(Maritime Labour Convention) (Medicines and Medical Equipment) Regulations 2014.
All such medicines and medical equipment shall be inspected at least once inevery 12 months by a registered pharmacist, and an Order on a Druggist Certificateshall be submitted to MPA upon successful inspection. MPA has revised the existingOrder on a Druggist Certificate and a sample can be found in Annex C. Singaporeships currently possessing a valid Order on a Druggist Certificate may apply theupdated requirements during the next inspection by a registered pharmacist.
Annexes A,B,C may be found at MPA’s Singapore Shipping Circular 09/2014
