B. Background to the Maritime Labour Convention, 2006
6. The MLC, 2006, was adopted by the 94th (Maritime) Session of the International Labour Conference (ILC) on 23 February 2006. It was adopted by the 106 member States that attended the Conference with no dissenting votes. 3
7. The text of the MLC, 2006, is the result of an extensive international tripartite consultation process that began in 2001, in response to a proposal, sometimes called the “Geneva Accord”, made by the Shipowner and Seafarer representatives on the Joint Maritime Commission (JMC). 4 The text was developed by a High-level Tripartite Working Group and Subgroup on Maritime Labour Standards, established by the ILO Governing Body, and further developed during the Preparatory Technical Maritime Conference (PTMC) in 2004 and the Tripartite Intersessional Meeting in 2005, before being finalized and adopted by the 94th (Maritime) Session of the ILC, held from 7 to 23 February 2006.
8. The MLC, 2006, is seen as a “Bill of Rights” which will help to ensure decent work for seafarers, no matter where ships sail and irrespective of the flag they fly. It is also seen as an important new tool to help ensure a level playing field for quality shipowners who may have to compete with ships that have substandard conditions. The MLC, 2006 is also important because it brings together the substance of most 5 of the existing ILO maritime labour instruments (Conventions and Recommendations) adopted since 1920 in one comprehensive, modern document that covers almost every aspect of decent work for this sector.
9. Although the MLC, 2006 essentially consolidates existing standards without significantly altering them, it protects working and living conditions in all areas covered by those standards and includes a much broader range of workers on a larger number of ships than the predecessor ILO Conventions. It thus covers workers on ships who might not previously have been classed under national laws as “seafarers”, mainly for reasons such as the type of work performed or the nature of the voyage or size of the ship concerned or the exclusion of particular categories of ships under a predecessor Convention. This could give rise to difficulties for some countries with respect to the application of the Convention’s requirements to some categories of ships and seafarers (see section III below).
10. The MLC, 2006, covers a significant number of areas in which there is flexibility with respect to implementation at the national level. The ways in which national flexibility may be exercised was designed to encourage social dialogue at the national level. In many
3 It was adopted by a record vote of 314 in favour, none against, involving 106 ILO Members and shipowners and seafarers from these countries. (The Government delegates of the two countries which abstained explained that the reasons for their votes were not related to the substance of the Convention.)
4 The records of the HLTWG meetings, the PTMC, the Intersessional meeting, and the 94th (Maritime) Session of the ILC, the text of the MLC, 2006, and other key documents are available at
www.ilo.org/global/What_we_do/InternationalLabourStandards/MaritimeLabour Convention/lang--en/
index.htm.
5 The substance of most instruments adopted since 1920 have been updated and are now included – “consolidated” – in the MLC, 2006. The ILO Conventions on seafarers’ identity documents (Nos 108 and 185), and on seafarers’ pensions (No. 71) and one already shelved Convention (No. 15), are not included in the new Convention. The 37 maritime labour Conventions that are now consolidated (revised) will be gradually phased out as Members that are now party to those Conventions ratify the MLC, 2006.
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