Nigeria is one of the 48 countries that
have ratified the International Labour Organisation’s ‘Bill of rights’
aimed at ensuring better protection for seafarers worldwide, but it will
not come into force in the country until 2014, SIMON EJEMBI writes
The International Labour Organisation’s
Maritime Labour Convention, 2006 came into force on Tuesday with the ILO
stressing that it symbolised a new era of decent work for seafarers and
fair competition for ship owners in the global shipping industry.
It took up to six years for the MLC to come into force and the ILO is excited about it.
“This convention is a milestone in
maritime history. The product of tripartite dialogue and international
cooperation, it enables decent working and living conditions for
seafarers to be advanced, along with fair competition for ship owners in
this most globalised of industries,” the Director-General, ILO, Mr. Guy
Ryder, was quoted as saying in a statement on the organisation’s
website.
Ryder, therefore, called on all
countries with a maritime interest to ratify it – if they had not yet
done so – while urging governments and ship owners to work effectively
to implement the convention.
According to the ILO, the convention has
the full support of the International Transport Workers’ Federation,
which represents seafarers, and the International Shipowners Federation,
both of which played a key role during the five years of its
development and in the adoption of the convention at a special ILO
conference in 2006.
It added, “The MLC 2006 also has the
strong support of the International Maritime Organisation, which
oversees the global shipping sector that moves some 90 per cent of world
trade.
“The European Union has adopted some
directives to give effect to the convention, while the Paris Memorandum
of Understanding and the Tokyo MoU have adopted MLC 2006 compliant
guidelines to strengthen port state control inspections.”
In general, the ILO says the convention
brings together, in one place, international minimum standards aimed at
ensuring decent work for seafarers, while helping to provide a level
playing field for quality ship owners operating under the flag of
countries that have ratified the MLC 2006 by promoting competitiveness
through ensuring reliable and efficient shipping.
The goal, it adds, is to make sure that decent working conditions go hand-in-hand with fair competition.
For the convention to have become a
binding international law, it had required ratification by 30 ILO member
states, which the organisation said represented over 33 per cent of the
world’s gross shipping tonnage. At the time it came into force on
Tuesday, 48 countries had ratified it. According to the ILO, the figure
represents more than 70 per cent of global shipping tonnage.
Although Nigeria has ratified the convention, it will not come into force in the country until 2014.
Information obtained from the ILO
website shows that Nigeria ratified the convention on June 18, 2013, but
it will be effective in Nigeria on June 18, 2014.
According to the ILO, the Nigerian
government has specified the following branches of social security:
medical care, sickness benefit, old-age benefit, employment injury
benefit, family benefit, maternity benefit and invalidity benefit, as
areas it will work on.
While the appropriate authorities could
not be reached for comment at the time of filing this report, the ILO
indicated satisfaction with the countries that have ratified it, paving
the way for it to come into force.
As the global maritime industry
proceeds to operate under new standards, and expectedly providing better
protection and fair competition for the 1.5 million seafarers
worldwide, the development has attracted praises from across the globe.
“The coming into force of the MLC, 2006
is a unique event in the history of international maritime labour law,”
said ILO Director of the International Labour Standards Department,
Cleopatra Doumbia-Henry.
“It is now incumbent on all to ensure
that ratification and legal implementation translate into law and
practice so that the world’s seafarers can truly benefit from the
protection of the convention and that ship owners, who meet the decent
work requirements of the convention, can enjoy the benefits it offers.
“It is also now urgent to ensure that
all ILO member states with a maritime interest ratify the convention,”
Doumbia-Henry stressed. “The ILO will continue to work with governments
and with seafarers and ship owners’ organisations and other key actors
in the maritime industry to ensure that the goals of the MLC, 2006 are
achieved.”
Under the general obligations of the
convention, it is stated that each member that ratifies it undertakes to
give a complete effect to its provisions in order to secure the right
of all seafarers to decent employment.
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