The Hindu Business Line : Guidance on onboard inspection

More than 300 representatives of seafarers and shipowners, along with Governments, are now meeting in Geneva to discuss guidelines on flag-state and port-state inspection onboard ships under the Maritime Labour Convention (MLC) adopted by the International Labour Organisation in 2006. The MLC 2006 sets out seafarers’ rights to decent conditions of work and helps to create conditions of fair competition for shipowners but it does not specify how ship inspections shoul d be carried out. The first meeting will adopt guidelines on flag state inspections and the second one will develop guidelines for port state control officers for carrying out inspections. Once the MLC 2006 comes into force, countries could adapt these guidelines to their national situations for use by flag-state and port-state inspectors to make sure a ship to which the convention applies complies with it. Guidance in this area and consistency in practice is necessary because of the possibility, under the MLC 2006, that a ship could be detained in port for a serious or repeated breach of the requirements of the convention (including seafarers’ rights). The MLC 2006 will come into force 12 months after ratification by at least 30 ILO member States with a total share of at least 33 per cent of the world’s gross shipping tonnage. The objective is to work out a five-year action plan such that specific targets and strategies can be put into force by 2011.

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