Seafarers' Bill of Rights

MUA National Secretary Paddy Crumlin addresses the ILO

It is no accident that the historic convention adopted at the ILO in February is known as the Seafarers' Bill of Rights. Along with the Slavery Abolition Act in the UK in 1833, the US Bill of Rights in 1789 and the ILO Forced Labour Convention in 1930, the Maritime Labour Convention, 2006 will play its part in freeing 1.2 million seafarers from the shackles of Flag of Convenience shipping - the infamous Ships of Shame.

The ILO achieved the breakthrough at the 10th Maritime Session of the International Labour Conference (ILC) in Geneva, where more than 1000 government, shipowner and seafarer representatives from some 100 countries met over three weeks.

The 'Superconvention' or 'Seafarers' Bill of Rights' was overwhelmingly adopted - a unanimous vote with just four abstentions - on February 23. It is the culmination of five years of intensive negotiations to provide a 'fourth pillar' - a single social instrument of the international regulatory system for the global maritime industry, along with the safety (SOLAS), training (STCW) and pollution (MARPOL) conventions of the International Maritime Organization (IMO).

"We have made maritime labour history," said ILO Director-General Juan Somavia. "We have adopted a Convention that spans continents and oceans, providing a comprehensive labour charter for the world's 1.2 million or more seafarers and addressing the evolving realities and needs of a sector that handles 90 per cent of the world's trade."

The International Shipping Federation, comprising national shipowners' associations in 34 countries representing the majority of the world's merchant shipping tonnage, issued a joint media release with the International Transport Workers' Federation immediately after the vote, hailing the adoption of seafarers' labour standards in the new ILO 'Superconvention'.

ITF General Secretary David Cockroft described its adoption as "an historic result for the ILO, showing that what has long been a global industry needs global regulation which will be enforced in practice at sea and in the world's ports".

National Secretary Paddy Crumlin, who has been involved with the process since the outset in 2001, attended the conference as the workers' representative. He was also elected Vice Chairperson of the Workers Group, Maritime Session, of the International Labour Conference - recognition of the Maritime Union's contribution and international standing.

"Our pioneering work in seafarer labour standards will continue to have truly global consequences," he said. "Seafarers throughout the world will be better off."

In an impassioned speech to the Conference the MUA National Secretary spoke of the stark reality of seafaring life.

"All seafarers have a right to decent work," he said. "What we do here and subsequently will either ensure or deny that to them, with all the implications that brings to their families and communities for generations to come.

"Many of the flags that fly from the sterns of those seafarers ships reflect business opportunity, not national responsibility. Their lives are often marred by crushing exploitation, savage intimidation and life-and-limb threatening neglect. Many of the flags are merely loopholes to national standards and labour regulation. Dark shadows of true national interest. Second as opposed to first registry means less scrutiny, less accountability and less direct ownership links. Other flags are really only mechanisms of avoidance and convenience to commercial interests."

Paddy Crumlin spoke of the ongoing exploitation, abandonment and death at sea of crew every day, every week and every month of every year. "Vessels that disappear at sea leaving an oily residue and impoverished and bereaved families, mostly in developing countries. Hundreds of lives, thousands. This is happening now, today."

But the Seafarers' Bill of Rights has implications far beyond the more obvious and immediate protection of exploited crew. Five years in the making, it will have far reaching implications, for Australian seafarers. In the long run it will also become a benchmark for other global industries.

It will play an important role in protecting Australian seafarers by reducing the yawning gap between wages and conditions of crew on Flag of Convenience vessels and national flag vessels. This is essentially why the Shipowners' Federation gave it support. It will create more level seas for quality shipowners to sail.

"Shipping employers who employ those seafarers will also be better off," said Paddy Crumlin. "Shipping assets will be safer, cargoes will be safer and opportunities for security breaches will be minimised."

The Convention sets minimum requirements for seafarers to work on a ship including hours of work and rest, accommodation, recreational facilities, food and catering, health protection, medical care, welfare and social security protection. Unlike previous conventions it has legally binding standards, which can be enforced.

Ships that are larger than 500 GT and engaged in international voyages or voyages between foreign ports will be required to carry a "Maritime Labour Certificate" and a "Declaration of Maritime Labour Compliance".

Committee chair, Bruce Carlton: "This Convention is unique in that it has teeth. What is fundamentally different about this Convention is that it is about quality shipping. Beyond improving the working conditions of seafarers, it is also about further marginalising the bad shipowners who end up costing the entire industry. This is a very sound economic benefit for the entire industry".

The New Convention will guarantee "quality shipping" worldwide.

With the Seafarers' Bill of Rights at long last a reality, the big issue now is ensuring it does not suffer the low levels of ratification of existing conventions.

With this in mind, Paddy Crumlin called for governments to not only ratify the maritime convention, but to make aid to developing nations contingent on those countries also ratifying.

Australian government officials were present and the national secretary pledged that the union would work with the Government to ensure ratification, stressing the issue of decent work and proper standards for working people should be outside ideology.

Shipping carries 99 per cent by bulk and 74 per cent by value of Australia's international trade.

"Our nation, any nation, every nation must reconcile themselves to the imperative of achieving standards of decent work nationally and internationally through appropriate regulation or quickly discover they are adding to the problem, not to the solution, of realising a more functional and harmonious global condition," he said. "International dysfunction and some of its agents can just as easily find manifestation in conflicts between labour and capital as in any national geo political confrontation on economic, religious or other grounds."

The Seafarers' Bill of Rights is historic not just in the maritime industry but in all industries.

"Globalisation of labour markets will inevitably require the same response from other industries," said Paddy Crumlin. "An internationally agreed and enforceable set of minimum labour standards, to protect a mobile workforce against the race to the bottom, outside the protections of the laws of the worker's home nation and under liberalised laws of the recruiting nation. This is a challenge that lies ahead for the ILO at large, and for employer and worker organisations in other industries."

The Convention will come into force after it has been ratified by 30 ILO member States with a total share of at least 33 per cent of world gross tonnage.