This year marks the 20th anniversary year of ‘MLC 2006’, the Maritime Labour Convention which provides the global framework for outlining decent working and living conditions at sea.
If entry into force had to wait until 2013, MLC ratification by 112 administrations representing more than 96% of the world fleet has surely come to provide a shining example of what regulation by consensus looks like.
Enforcement, meanwhile, is widespread. Jainal T. Rasul, Undersecretary, Department of Migrant Workers for the Philippines told an ILO podcast audience in early June that around 1,000 vessels had been detained for MLC-specific reasons. Deficiencies included “particularly those found wanting employment contracts of seafarers and poor living and working conditions”, he said.
Amendments to MLC in 2024 enforced internet access for seafarers as a right and new provisions adopted this year to counteract violence and harassment on board also show the Convention as adaptable to change.
However, as Undersecretary Rasul also told the Implementation of the Maritime Labour Convention in times of crisis’ podcast: “Seafarer’s rights and welfare must be protected during armed conflicts or piracy.” Mechanisms to protect seafarer financial security and abandonment protection, mandatory repatriation, ship owner liability for wages and welfare, onboard complaint procedures “and many others” needed to be strengthened, he said.
Reflecting on shore leave, Max Johns, Vice-Chair of the Special Tripartite Committee of the MLC – a former shipowner – said Covid had exposed how “there was a fundamental fault line that we could not foresee 20 years ago on border controls…We discovered we needed the ministries of the interior, exterior and health – and most of them were not even aware of the MLC.”
But if awareness had since been raised, seafarers stuck in the Strait of Hormuz had once again been “treated as a different species, as a different kind of human beings, and that is something we have to stop and change”, said Johns.
Beatriz Vacotto, Head of the Maritime Unit, ILO, told the forum: “The ILO Committee of Experts have clearly said that the MLC cannot be suspended during crises; on the contrary, during this crisis these minimum rights have to be enforced.”
Carlos Muller, Secretary General of CONTTMAF National Confederation of Workers, Brazil, also highlighted the importance of the MLC for guaranteeing rights, and that “this can become very fragile during wars, conflicts or disruption”.
“Covid-19 exposed serious failures in crew change, medical care and contact with families,” said Muller. “Seafarers must not be treated as a side victim of any war… we need multilateralism to find the best way to protect them.”
He added: “Unilateral maritime trade sanctions have also contributed to the growth of questionable registries and shadow fleets: they are not good for seafarers; we cannot enforce any rights in shadow fleet vessels. So we need to gather our efforts to have ships registered under real flags.”
Acknowledged in the reinforcement of efforts to redefine seafarers as ‘key workers’ by International Labour Organization resolution in April 2025, MLC is the bedrock and – ‘as amended’ – the instrument for change.
It is also by implementing the MLC effectively and in all circumstances that the hopes expressed for the seagoing workforce around the Day of the Seafarer will be realised to lasting effect.