ILO welcomes new regulations on ship breaking as crisis boosts the industry

After more than five years of negotiation, delegates from 59 countries to an International Maritime Organization (IMO) conference signed the Hong Kong Agreement regulating the recycling of ships on 15 May 2009. For the ILO, the agreement is an important step to make ship breaking decent work. ILO Online spoke with manufacturing specialist David Seligson and maritime industry specialist Dani Appave from the ILO Sectoral Activities Department.

ILO Online: Is shipbreaking among the rare industries profiting from the current economic downturn?

David Seligson: That’s correct. The crisis has hit industries ranging from automakers to shipping, but the ship breaking business has been booming in recent months and business is set to increase further still. Faced with the global economic crisis, shipping companies are trying to sell older ships for scrap several years before they reach the normal end of their lifecycle. According to a study by BIMCO and recent media reports, the world’s largest private shipping organization, recycling capacities will not be able to cope with near future demand.

ILO Online: But working conditions in ship breaking yards have also attracted attention in recent years? How will these conditions be affected?

David Seligson: Ship recycling is labour intensive and takes place largely in developing countries. Worker safety has clearly been an issue. Titanic-sized vessels are floated on to beaches and cut up by workers who are often exposed to deadly toxins, exploding gases, falling steel plates and other dangers. Many workers don’t have access to basic personal protective equipment such as hard hats, gloves and goggles for steel cutting activities. Many have been killed and thousands injured working in dangerous conditions. Efforts have been made to improve the situation but more progress is needed if we are to reach the goal of decent working conditions for all.

ILO Online: How can the new agreement help to make ship breaking decent work?

David Seligson: The Hong Kong International Convention for the Safe and Environmentally Sound Recycling of Ships, 2009 is aimed at ensuring that ships, arriving at a recycling location at the end of their operational lives are in such a condition that they are capable of being recycled in safe conditions. The recycling operations should not pose any unnecessary risk to human health and safety or to the environment. The new Convention intends to address all the issues around ship recycling, including the fact that ships sold for scrapping may contain environmentally hazardous substances such as asbestos, heavy metals, hydrocarbons, ozone-depleting substances and others. It will address concerns raised about the working and environmental conditions at many of the world’s ship recycling locations.

ILO Online: What do the regulations in the IMO Convention cover?

David Seligson: Regulations in the new IMO Convention cover: the design, construction, operation and preparation of ships so as to facilitate safe and environmentally sound recycling, without compromising the safety and operational efficiency of ships; the operation of ship recycling facilities in a safe and environmentally sound manner; and, the establishment of an appropriate enforcement mechanism for ship recycling, incorporating certification and reporting requirements. Ship recycling yards will be required to provide a “Ship Recycling Plan”, to specify the manner in which each ship will be recycled, depending on its particulars and its inventory. Parties will be required to take effective measures to ensure that ship recycling facilities under their jurisdiction comply with the Convention.

ILO Online: What was the role of the ILO in establishing the new IMO Convention?

Dani Appave: The ILO has been contributing to the drafting process of the ship recycling Convention that has been developed over the past three years by the International Maritime Organization (IMO), with input from IMO and ILO member States and relevant non-governmental organizations, and in co-operation with the ILO and the Parties to the Basel Convention.

ILO Online: When will the new IMO Convention enter into force?

Dani Appave: The Convention will be open for signature by member states of the IMO from 1 September 2009 to 31 August 2010 and shall thereafter remain open for accession by any State. It will enter into force 24 months after the date on which 15 States, representing 40 per cent of world merchant shipping by gross tonnage, have either signed it without reservation as to ratification, acceptance or approval or have deposited instruments of ratification, acceptance, approval or accession with the Secretary General. Furthermore, the combined maximum annual ship recycling volume of those States must, during the preceding 10 years, constitute not less than 3 per cent of their combined merchant shipping tonnage.

ILO Online: IMO now has a new Convention. What are the next steps?

Dani Appave: The Convention lays the basis for ships to be dismantled in conditions of safety for workers and the environment. However, more detailed guidelines will be required, taking into consideration the principles contained in other international agreements. As far as safety and health, asbestos and other toxins present on the ships are concerned, the ILO provides various solutions based on its international standards, including ILO Conventions 155, 152, 139, 148, 162 and 170 on safety and health, occupational cancer, the working environment, and safety in the use of asbestos. In 2003, representatives of government, employers’ and workers’ organizations from heavyweight ship breaking nations Bangladesh, China, India, Pakistan and Turkey adopted ILO Guidelines on Safety and Health in ship breaking.

The new IMO Convention will be accompanied by several sets of guidelines. A correspondence group has been established to prepare guidelines on ship recycling facilities as well as on an inventory of hazardous materials. The ILO will participate in this process, in order to ensure that the new IMO guidelines will be up to the ILO’s existing instruments. This also means that our cooperation with member States on conditions of work in the sector should be reinforced, as well as the use of our own Guidelines, which continue to be relevant.

The complicated entry into force requirements means that the good will of major flag states and of major recycling states will be essential for the Convention to enter into force. The latter will need technical and other assistance to encourage them to ratify soon.