Domestic seafarers seen to benefit from new maritime labor standards

MANILA, Philippines — An estimated 40,000 domestic seafarers onboard Philippine registered ships are expected to benefit from the government’s program to ensure decent work and labor standards in the local maritime industry.

During the fourth plenary Maritime Industry Tripartite Council (MITC) meeting, Labor and Employment Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz said the necessary measures would ensure the proper decent work standards for all local maritime workers on board local vessels.

The tripartite body composed of the labor, management and government partners of the country’s maritime industry, has endorsed two MITC resolutions — the issuance of an appropriate Department of Labor and Employment department order (DO) for the rules and regulations governing the employment and working conditions of domestic seafarers and the Philippines’ ratification of the International Labor Organization’s (ILO) Maritime Labor Convention 2006 (MLC).

Baldoz stressed all these efforts are consistent with the 22-point labor and employment agenda of President Benigno S. Aquino III, to “invest in human resource and make us more competitive and employable while promoting industrial peace based on social justice and strengthen the welfare and protection of all Filipino workers including the country’s seafarers.”

The MITC’s plenary meeting would be a full-force event to be attended by the social partners of the Philippines’ maritime industry, alongside both local and international stakeholders, and other observers.

During the MITC plenary, ILO International Labor Standards Department director Cleopatra Doumbia-Henry from the International Labor Office-Geneva discussed an overview and updates on the MLC 2006.

Baldoz emphasized that for the Philippines, the work towards ratifying the MLC affirms the country’s standing as the manning capital of the world with its 250,000 overseas Filipino seafarers, who comprise 25 – 30 percent of global shipping fleet’s manning complement, and are thus the driving force behind the ships that handle the world’s trade.

Stressing that the overseas Filipino seafarers are covered by the primary conventions of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) namely the International Convention for Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS), the Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping (STCW), and the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships (MARPOL), the ratification of MLC 2006 would provide the necessary foundations for decent work benefiting the employment, welfare, and protection of the estimated 40,000 seafarers who are not abroad but are manning our numerous inter-island ships. –EDU LOPEZ, Manila Bulletin