The Maritime Labour Convention 2006 (MLC) is a new Convention which aims to bring together and update existing conventions regarding the employment of seafarers onboard commercial ships worldwide. Although there is much discussion about the Convention, and the document itself runs to over 100 pages, the principal new obligations regarding minimum standards in respect of liability can be simply summarised as follows:
1. NOTICE PERIODS
– Minimum of 7 days.
2. SICK WAGES
– Minimum of 16 weeks (4 months).
3. REPATRIATION
– You must repatriate seafarers in the event of:
a) termination or expiry of their employment,
b) ship’s loss or foundering,
c) illness or injury or otherwise being unable to continue in their role,
d) ship’s entry to a war zone and seafarer exercises option to leave,
e) in the event of the shipowner being unable to fulfil their obligations as employer.
3. FINANCIAL SECURITY
– You must have financial security’ in place, to meet your liability to repatriate crewmembers and pay them any compensation due in the event of your inability to do so (for instance, even payable when you are insolvent).
– This is not a ‘compulsory insurance’ like CLC or Bunker Convention, but if you cannot prove (by lodging a bond to cover these costs or by showing ringfenced funds in some other way) that these costs would be met, then you will need to buy insurance to respond in these situations. If you have an International Group Mutual P&I Certificate that will do, otherwise you may need to buy an ‘MLC top-up’ insurance to add onto your commercial P&I Certificate.
4. SEAFARER EMPLOYMENT AGREEMENTS (SEAs)
– You must put certain basic things in the seafarer’s employment contracts.
– You can use a pro-forma MLC-compliant contract called a Seafarer Employment Agreement or you can use your own contract so long as it contains all the minimum information required.
