By Captain Steven Chalk
Courtesy of Lloyd's Register

The International Labour Organisation's Maritime Labour Convention (MLC 2006) has been enacted to protect the working conditions of seafarers regardless of their nationality, or the flag that their vessel flies. Often referred to as the seafarers' "bill of rights", and the "fourth pillar of maritime legislation", after SOLAS, Marpol and STCW, it addresses minimum requirements for all seafarers regardless of their nationality and the flag that their vessel flies, including minimum requirements to work on a ship, conditions of employment, accommodation, recreational facilities, food and catering, health protection, medical care, welfare and social security protection.

The convention will come in to force 12 months after the date on which 30 ILO Member States, representing 33% of the total world's gross tonnage of ships have ratified it. To date the second part of the criteria has been met with 43% of the world's gross tonnage having signed up to it.

Once the convention has been implemented, Port State control will inspect against the mandatory parts of the Convention (Part A) and will use this as their inspection process on ships, even on ships from countries that have not ratified this convention.

The certification requirement applies to ships of 500grt or over, engaged in international voyages and 500grt or over, flying the flag of a member state and operating from a port, in another country. For vessels below 500grt or ships operating on a domestic trade will not require certification but will still be required to be inspected against the requirements of this Convention.

However, the Convention is ill-defined when it comes to how it will affect the yachting industry as competent authorities will have their own interpretation on how it should be applied.

Article II paragraph 4 states "the Convention applies to all ships, whether publicly or privately owned, ordinarily engaged in commercial activities". But the word "ordinarily" is not defined in the Convention or by the ILO and is to be left to the competent authorities to define.

Lloyds Register considers a Mega Yacht to be a ship type and would therefore require a DMLC part 1. We expect this to be a special DLMC part 1 from the competent authority highlighting specific national regulations and laws for the vessel type, plus any exemptions. There are indications from one competent authority that the MLC 2006 will only apply to mega yachts of 24 metres or more; however we may see other interpolations on this. Lloyds Register's understanding of the MLC 2006 is that ships under 200grt will still need to be inspected, including those on domestic trade, if they fall under the definition of a ship.

However, the MLC 2006 allows some flexibility to competent authorities in applying certain aspects of the code to vessels such as mega yachts that might fall under this category.

(1) Article II of the convention allows the competent authority the option not to apply certain details of the Code of the MLC 2006 to a ship, or particular categories of ships such as mega yachts, so long as there are national laws or regulations or collective bargaining agreements, or other measures in place, which address relevant provisions of the code being exempted. The paragraph also goes on to say that such a position can only be taken by the competent authority to vessels of less than 200grt not engaged in international trade.

This does not indicate that such vessels are exempt from inspection; it just allows a common sense application of the MLC 2006 as far as practicable on such vessels noting that the inspection will be against the foresaid national laws, regulations and not the convention requirements in some areas.

(2) The requirements for accommodation, construction and equipment listed in Title 3 of the convention will only apply to new builds after the Convention has been implemented. For existing ships will be inspected against the Accommodation Regulations C92 or C133 applicable to the Member State. The Convention recognizes the difficulties of meeting some of the requirements under accommodation construction for vessels and equipment for vessels under 200grt and therefore will allow certain exemptions in such areas such as: Air conditioning; Wash basins in cabins; Laundry facilities; Sleeping room floor areas. In both cases above, the competent authorities' must consult with the social partners –ship-owners and seafarer's organizations – for any exemptions that are requested, on the understanding that no exemption can be allowed to compromise the health and safety of the seafarer. However, all other parts of the convention will apply.

By Captain Steven Chalk
Courtesy of Lloyd's Register

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