Known as the ‘Seafarers Bill of Right’, the International Labour Organization’s Maritime Labour Convention (MLC2006) comes into force effect tomorrow; August 20, 2013. Currently, the ILO has registered ratifications of the Convention by 45 ILO member States, responsible for regulating conditions for seafarers on more than 75 per cent of the world’s gross tonnage of ships.
Known as the ‘Seafarers Bill of Right’, the International Labour Organization’s Maritime Labour Convention (MLC2006) comes into force effect tomorrow; August 20, 2013. Currently, the ILO has registered ratifications of the Convention by 45 ILO member States, responsible for regulating conditions for seafarers on more than 75 per cent of the world’s gross tonnage of ships.
Technically, with effect from tomorrow, the MLC 2006 will become binding in international law — it will establish minimum working and living standards for all seafarers on those ships. It will also usher in a new era of fair competition and a level-playing field for quality owners of ships flying the flags of ratifying countries.
The MLC, 2006 was adopted by the tripod of the convention, namely: government, employer and worker representatives at a special ILO International Labour Conference, in February 2006, with the objective of providing international standards for the world’s first genuinely global industry.
The comprehensive Convention sets out the seafarers' rights to decent conditions of work on almost every aspect of their working and living conditions including; among others, minimum age, employment agreements, hours of work or rest, payment of wages, paid annual leave, repatriation at the end of contract, onboard medical care, the use of licensed private recruitment and placement services, accommodation, food and catering, health and safety protection and accident prevention and seafarers’ complaint handling.
By its own agreement and in line with ILO practice, Conventions usually become binding under international law 12 months after countries register ratifications. With this, it means that the MLC will become binding on Nigeria by June 18, 2014. This is because Nigeria submitted her Instrument of Ratification on June 18 2013 at the headquarters of the ILO in Geneva; Switzerland.
Since the 2007 merger of both NMA and JOMALIC, every responsibility for seafarers’ welfare has been domiciled in NIMASA.
Irrespective of their current rating within the nation’s maritime sector, the Nigerian seafarers are arguably an important stakeholder. One can hardly forget how respectable it was to be a seafarer up till the mid- 1990s; that was before the liquidation of the Nigerian National Shipping Line (NNSL).
The average age of the youngest master mariner and marine engineer in the country today is about 55 years, while there are thousands of lower cadre seafarers, few of whom are gainfully employed. There are also countless dockworkers.
A lot of people have blamed the current travail of the Nigerian seafarer on government and by extension, NIMASA, which is the implementing agency for seafarer welfare. Without mincing words, NIMASA has not done well enough to boost the marketability of emerging seafarers, this it would have done by ensuring that the Maritime Academy of Nigeria in Oron, Akwa Ibom state is adequately equipped.
There are about 1.2 million seafarers in the world, and good enough, Nigerian seafarers make up a significant number of the lot.
It is instructive that the MLC 2006 is poised to ensure that every seafarer has the right to: safe and secure workplace that complies with safety standards, fair terms of employment, decent working and living conditions on board ship and health protection, medical care, welfare measures as well as other forms of social protection.
In specific, the MLC Convention covers conditions of employment, hours of work and rest, accommodation, recreational facilities, food and catering, health protection, medical care, welfare and social security protection.
In addition, parties to the treaty must ensure that ships flying their flag meet the ‘decent work’ requirements set out in the Convention, and certify that those ships comply with the requirements relating to labour conditions.
Nigeria has finally ratified the convention, putting its name on the list of countries from West Africa that have ratified the all-important convention. Even though it is popularly called “the seafarers bill of rights”, the MLC 2006, is expected to significantly impact on the fortunes of Nigerian seafarers. But can it?
In a country where thousands of seafarers are either unemployed or under employed and where the registry is depleting by the day, one can hardly expect anything positive, beyond the euphoria of joining the number as the convention kicks off in a few hours.
We recall sadly that the nation joined others to endorse the Seafarers Identity Document (SID) some years ago, without understanding the requirements from each signatory-nation. The SID that was commissioned with pump and glamour by the then-Joint Maritime Labour Industrial Council (JOMALIC) has not impacted significantly on the Nigerian maritime sector, largely because the nation’s seafaring population is depleted by unemployment.
So, we advise that rather than celebrate the ratification and imminent flag-off of the MLC, the Nigerian maritime community should work more assiduously to make Nigeria a truly maritime nation, by enhancing its fleet, offer would-be seafarers qualitative cadet education and subsequently, sea time and offering more jobs to the qualified ones.
Nigeria no longer parade world-class seafarers, she no longer owns ships. But even if we no longer own ships, the abundance of budding and qualified seafarers should propel government to guarantee safety and decent work condition for them; that is the intendment of the MLC2006.
As the MLC 2006 kicks-off, we think that Nigeria should start the countdown to June 18, 2014 when her seafarers and other stakeholders will become accountable and responsible to the dictates of the convention. One sure way to get serious is by prevailing on the National Assembly to the domestication the MLC 2006. To subject it to the intrigues that are characteristic of legislation in Nigeria is to erode the importance of the convention and rubbish the efforts that stakeholders invested in it.
And shall we conclude by stressing that NIMASA has a lot more to do now than it did prior to June 18 when the instrument of ratification was submitted to the ILO in Switzerland.
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