Press Notice No: 361-09
Thursday, November 05, 2009
Posted 15:51 GMT

The Maritime and Coastguard Agency is co-hosting a two day seminar with recognised ship owner and seafarer representatives at the Chamber of Shipping. London on the 9th and 10th November 2009.

The keynote address will be given by Paul Clark MP, the parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Shipping, and amongst the speakers is Ms Cleopatra Doumbia-Henry, who is the Director of Labour Standards at the International Labour Office in Geneva.

The aim of the seminar is to set out clearly what it means to those in the industry affected by the provisions of the Maritime Labour Convention 2006 and what they need to do to ensure compliance with the new legislation.

A key element of the Convention is Title 5 (Compliance and Enforcement) and this will be discussed at length from both the flag state and port state perspectives.

The UK is on target to ratify the Convention towards the end of 2010, which is in line with the EU recommendation to Member States. As part of the implementation strategy, MCA surveyors have undertaken a number of trial inspections on various ships to ascertain how long an inspection will take and identify any issues associated with implementing the new convention.

Neil Atkinson, Operational Policy Lead, Inspection Branch said:

We are delighted that this seminar will give all interested parties the opportunity to discuss the implementation of this new piece of legislation.

It is extremely important that seafarers are afforded similar protection on an international basis to land based employees in terms of suitable living and working conditions.


Posted By: Fleur Terry

For further details contact:
The Maritime & Coastguard Agency Press Office
023 8032 9401