Sailing High: The UK ratifies the Maritime Labour Convention

The UK has ratified the Maritime Labour Convention 2006 (MLC), adopting a new set of international standards for seafarers' living and working conditions. As the UK currently has 1,383 vessels on its register (totalling 16.57 million gross tonnage) as well as 89,000 seafarers working on UK flagged ships and more than 24,100 UK nationals working as seafarers this signals a flagship change.

The MLC is an International Labour Organization (ILO) convention designed to set minimum global standards for seafarers' living and working conditions. The MLC also consolidates and updates more than 68 international labour standards in the maritime sector. A key selling point of the MLC for ships of ratifying countries has been the underlying concept that they will benefit from a system of certification, avoiding or reducing the likelihood of lengthy delays related to inspections in foreign ports.

While the MLC will apply to most maritime vessels, it is worth noting that it does not currently cover seafarers on fishing vessels, warships and naval auxiliaries, ships navigating inland or sheltered waters subject to port regulations and traditional ships (e.g. dhows).

By ratifying the MLC, the UK (along with the Isle of Man and Gibraltar) has joined 51 states that have ratified the MLC including Panama, the Netherlands, the Russian Federation and Singapore. Various other countries including France, Germany and Japan have also recently signed up to the MLC. The states who have ratified the MLC already account for more than 50 per cent of the world’s seafarers and more than three quarters of the world’s gross tonnage of ships. A full list of countries where the MLC has been ratified, including the status of the MLC and the dates when the MLC came/will come into force, can be found here).

Draft proposals published by the MCA on how employers and seafarers can prepare to comply with the MLC (published before the MLC was ratified by the UK) can be found on the MCA website.

The ratification of the MLC has been a long process involving numerous Government departments and various stakeholders including the UK Chamber of Shipping, Nautilus International and the RMT union. Upon ratification of the MLC Stephen Hammond MP, the UK Minister for Shipping, stated:

"I am pleased to adopt this convention. This will ensure that there are globally agreed standards for seafarers and their right to decent working conditions. It will also provide clarity of regulatory approach and remove obstacles to regional trade.

It also ensures a level playing field for the UK merchant fleet because the Convention will require ships registered in other states to meet internationally agreed standards."

The MLC was adopted as part of UK law on 20 August 2013 with the provisions of the MLC expected to come into force by 07 August 2014.