Maritime Labour Convention amendments – what are we hoping for?

The Fifth Meeting of the Special Tripartite Committee of the Maritime Labour Convention (MLC) will take place in Geneva on 7–11 April 2025. Nautilus director of legal services Charles Boyle explains what workers' representatives will be pushing for in the latest round of amendments to the 'Seafarers' Bill of Rights'

The Maritime Labour Convention 2006, which ensures a basic level of rights and protections for all seafarers across the globe on issues such as repatriation, medical care, food and safety, is a living instrument that is regularly assessed and amended.

This process is conducted by representatives from governments, industry and trade unions, and shipowners, with the latest round set to commence in April. The ILO has already circulated a list of suggested proposed amendments submitted by these stakeholders for consideration. During these meetings, proposals are either accepted (sometimes with further amendments to the original proposal by way of reaching a compromise agreement), rejected or withdrawn.

For the second time, many of the 16 amendments on the table for discussion have been influenced by the Covid lockdown's effect on seafarers. Five have been put forward by governments, one by shipowners, five by seafarers' representatives, and five jointly by seafarers' representatives and shipowners.

The proposals include:

• global recognition of seafarers as key workers
• strengthening the rights of seafarers with respect to shore leave
• addressing shipboard violence and harassment, including sexual harassment, bullying and sexual assault
• a new amendment to tackle criminalisation
• increasing hours of rest
• ensuring that there is an equal opportunity offered to all seafarers to gain necessary training for new technology at no cost to themselves
• harmonising repatriation entitlements
The MLC is a consolidation of many older International Labour Organization conventions – facilitating improvements for seafarers across a wide spectrum of living and working conditions. It is encouraging to see that the MLC has been updated thus far, to respond to issues that have affected the industry in recent years – most notably how seafarers' lives were so seriously impacted during the pandemic, such as obstacles to transiting to ship, repatriation, access to medical care and shore leave.

Further improvements will be pursued, as well as trying to add a reference to the ILO/IMO Guidelines on fair treatment of seafarers in the event of involvement in a maritime accident into the MLC.