Title 1. Minimum requirements for seafarers to work on a ship
Regulation 1.1 - Minimum age
To ensure that no under-age persons work on a ship
- 1. No person below the minimum age shall be employed or engaged or work on a
ship.
- 2. The minimum age at the time of the initial entry into force of this
Convention is 16 years.
- 3. A higher minimum age shall be required in the circumstances set out in
the Code.
Standard A1.1 - Minimum age
- 1. The employment, engagement or work on board a ship of any person
under the age of 16 shall be prohibited.
- 2. Night work of seafarers under the age of 18 shall be prohibited. For
the purposes of this Standard, night shall be defined in accordance with
national law and practice. It shall cover a period of at least nine
hours starting no later than midnight and ending no earlier than 5
a.m.
- 3. An exception to strict compliance with the night work restriction may
be made by the competent authority when:
- (a) the effective training of the seafarers concerned, in
accordance with established programmes and schedules, would be
impaired; or
- (b) the specific nature of the duty or a recognized training
programme requires that the seafarers covered by the exception
perform duties at night and the authority determines, after
consultation with the shipowners' and seafarers' organizations
concerned, that the work will not be detrimental to their health
or well-being.
- 4. The employment, engagement or work of seafarers under the age of 18
shall be prohibited where the work is likely to jeopardize their health
or safety. The types of such work shall be determined by national laws
or regulations or by the competent authority, after consultation with
the shipowners' and seafarers' organizations concerned, in accordance
with relevant international standards.
Guideline B1.1 - Minimum age
- 1. When regulating working and living conditions, Members should give
special attention to the needs of young persons under the age of
18.
Regulation 1.2 - Medical certificate
To ensure that all seafarers are medically fit to perform their duties at
sea
- 1. Seafarers shall not work on a ship unless they are certified as medically
fit to perform their duties.
- 2. Exceptions can only be permitted as prescribed in the Code.
Standard A1.2 - Medical certificate
- 1. The competent authority shall require that, prior to beginning work
on a ship, seafarers hold a valid medical certificate attesting that
they are medically fit to perform the duties they are to carry out at
sea.
- 2. In order to ensure that medical certificates genuinely reflect
seafarers' state of health, in light of the duties they are to perform,
the competent authority shall, after consultation with the shipowners'
and seafarers' organizations concerned, and giving due consideration to
applicable international guidelines referred to in Part B of this Code,
prescribe the nature of the medical examination and certificate.
- 3. This Standard is without prejudice to the International Convention on
Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers,
1978, as amended ("STCW"). A medical certificate issued in accordance
with the requirements of STCW shall be accepted by the competent
authority, for the purpose of Regulation 1.2. A medical certificate
meeting the substance of those requirements, in the case of seafarers
not covered by STCW, shall similarly be accepted.
- 4. The medical certificate shall be issued by a duly qualified medical
practitioner or, in the case of a certificate solely concerning
eyesight, by a person recognized by the competent authority as qualified
to issue such a certificate. Practitioners must enjoy full professional
independence in exercising their medical judgement in undertaking
medical examination procedures.
- 5. Seafarers that have been refused a certificate or have had a
limitation imposed on their ability to work, in particular with respect
to time, field of work or trading area, shall be given the opportunity
to have a further examination by another independent medical
practitioner or by an independent medical referee.
- 6. Each medical certificate shall state in particular that:
- (a) the hearing and sight of the seafarer concerned, and the
colour vision in the case of a seafarer to be employed in
capacities where fitness for the work to be performed is liable
to be affected by defective colour vision, are all satisfactory;
and
- (b) the seafarer concerned is not suffering from any medical
condition likely to be aggravated by service at sea or to render
the seafarer unfit for such service or to endanger the health of
other persons on board.
- 7. Unless a shorter period is required by reason of the specific duties
to be performed by the seafarer concerned or is required under STCW:
- (a) a medical certificate shall be valid for a maximum period of
two years unless the seafarer is under the age of 18, in which
case the maximum period of validity shall be one year;
- (b) a certification of colour vision shall be valid for a
maximum period of six years.
- 8. In urgent cases the competent authority may permit a seafarer to work
without a valid medical certificate until the next port of call where
the seafarer can obtain a medical certificate from a qualified medical
practitioner, provided that:
- (a) the period of such permission does not exceed three months;
and
- (b) the seafarer concerned is in possession of an expired
medical certificate of recent date.
- 9. If the period of validity of a certificate expires in the course of a
voyage, the certificate shall continue in force until the next port of
call where the seafarer can obtain a medical certificate from a
qualified medical practitioner, provided that the period shall not
exceed three months.
- 10. The medical certificates for seafarers working on ships ordinarily
engaged on international voyages must as a minimum be provided in
English.
Guideline B1.2 - Medical certificate
Guideline B1.2.1 - International guidelines
- 1. The competent authority, medical practitioners, examiners,
shipowners, seafarers' representatives and all other persons
concerned with the conduct of medical fitness examinations of
seafarer candidates and serving seafarers should follow the ILO/WHO
Guidelines for Conducting Pre-sea and Periodic Medical Fitness
Examinations for Seafarers, including any subsequent versions, and
any other applicable international guidelines published by the
International Labour Organization, the International Maritime
Organization or the World Health Organization.
Regulation 1.3 - Training and qualifications
Purpose: To ensure that seafarers are trained or qualified to carry out their
duties on board ship
- 1. Seafarers shall not work on a ship unless they are trained or certified
as competent or otherwise qualified to perform their duties.
- 2. Seafarers shall not be permitted to work on a ship unless they have
successfully completed training for personal safety on board ship.
- 3. Training and certification in accordance with the mandatory instruments
adopted by the International Maritime Organization shall be considered as
meeting the requirements of paragraphs 1 and 2 of this Regulation.
- 4. Any Member which, at the time of its ratification of this Convention, was
bound by the Certification of Able Seamen Convention, 1946 (No. 74), shall
continue to carry out the obligations under that Convention unless and until
mandatory provisions covering its subject matter have been adopted by the
International Maritime Organization and entered into force, or until five
years have elapsed since the entry into force of this Convention in
accordance with paragraph 3 of Article VIII, whichever date is earlier.
Regulation 1.4 - Recruitment and placement
Purpose: To ensure that seafarers have access to an efficient and
well-regulated seafarer recruitment and placement system
- 1. All seafarers shall have access to an efficient, adequate and accountable
system for finding employment on board ship without charge to the
seafarer.
- 2. Seafarer recruitment and placement services operating in a Member’s
territory shall conform to the standards set out in the Code.
- 3. Each Member shall require, in respect of seafarers who work on ships that
fly its flag, that shipowners who use seafarer recruitment and placement
services that are based in countries or territories in which this Convention
does not apply, ensure that those services conform to the requirements set
out in the Code.
Standard A1.4 – Recruitment and placement
- 1. Each Member that operates a public seafarer recruitment and placement
service shall ensure that the service is operated in an orderly manner
that protects and promotes seafarers’ employment rights as provided in
this Convention.
- 2. Where a Member has private seafarer recruitment and placement
services operating in its territory whose primary purpose is the
recruitment and placement of seafarers or which recruit and place a
significant number of seafarers, they shall be operated only in
conformity with a standardized system of licensing or certification or
other form of regulation. This system shall be established, modified or
changed only after consultation with the shipowners’ and seafarers’
organizations concerned. In the event of doubt as to whether this
Convention applies to a private recruitment and placement service, the
question shall be determined by the competent authority in each Member
after consultation with the shipowners’ and seafarers’ organizations
concerned. Undue proliferation of private seafarer recruitment and
placement services shall not be encouraged.
- 3. The provisions of paragraph 2 of this Standard shall also apply – to
the extent that they are determined by the competent authority, in
consultation with the shipowners’ and seafarers’ organizations
concerned, to be appropriate – in the context of recruitment and
placement services operated by a seafarers’ organization in the
territory of the Member for the supply of seafarers who are nationals of
that Member to ships which fly its flag. The services covered by this
paragraph are those fulfilling the following conditions:
- (a) the recruitment and placement service is operated pursuant
to a collective bargaining agreement between that organization
and a shipowner;
- (b) both the seafarers’ organization and the shipowner are based
in the territory of the Member;
- (c) The Member has national laws or regulations or a procedure
to authorize or register the collective bargaining agreement
permitting the operation of the recruitment and placement
service; and
- (d) the recruitment and placement service is operated in an
orderly manner and measures are in place to protect and promote
seafarers’ employment rights comparable to those provided in
paragraph 5 of this Standard.
- 4. Nothing in this Standard or Regulation 1.4 shall be deemed to:
- (a) prevent a Member from maintaining a free public seafarer
recruitment and placement service for seafarers in the framework
of a policy to meet the needs of seafarers and shipowners,
whether the service forms part of or is coordinated with a
public employment service for all workers and employers; or
- (b) impose on a Member the obligation to establish a system for
the operation of private seafarer recruitment or placement
services in its territory.
- 5. A Member adopting a system referred to in paragraph 2 of this
Standard shall, in its laws and regulations or other measures, at a
minimum:
- (a) prohibit seafarer recruitment and placement services from
using means, mechanisms or lists intended to prevent or deter
seafarers from gaining employment for which they are
qualified;
- (b) require that no fees or other charges for seafarer
recruitment or placement or for providing employment to
seafarers are borne directly or indirectly, in whole or in part,
by the seafarer, other than the cost of the seafarer obtaining a
national statutory medical certificate, the national seafarer’s
book and a passport or other similar personal travel documents,
not including, however, the cost of visas, which shall be borne
by the shipowner; and
- (c) ensure that seafarer recruitment and placement services
operating in its territory:
- (i) maintain an up-to-date register of all seafarers
recruited or placed through them, to be available for
inspection by the competent authority;
- (ii) make sure that seafarers are informed of their
rights and duties under their employment agreements
prior to or in the process of engagement and that proper
arrangements are made for seafarers to examine their
employment agreements before and after they are signed
and for them to receive a copy of the agreements;
- (iii) verify that seafarers recruited or placed by them
are qualified and hold the documents necessary for the
job concerned, and that the seafarers’ employment
agreements are in accordance with applicable laws and
regulations and any collective bargaining agreement that
forms part of the employment agreement;
- (iv) make sure, as far as practicable, that the
shipowner has the means to protect seafarers from being
stranded in a foreign port;
- (v) examine and respond to any complaint concerning
their activities and advise the competent authority of
any unresolved complaint;
- (vi) establish a system of protection, by way of
insurance or an equivalent appropriate measure, to
compensate seafarers for monetary loss that they may
incur as a result of the failure of a recruitment and
placement service or the relevant shipowner under the
seafarers’ employment agreement to meet its obligations
to them.
- 6. The competent authority shall closely supervise and control all
seafarer recruitment and placement services operating in the territory
of the Member concerned. Any licences or certificates or similar
authorizations for the operation of private services in the territory
are granted or renewed only after verification that the seafarer
recruitment and placement service concerned meets the requirements of
national laws and regulations.
- 7. The competent authority shall ensure that adequate machinery and
procedures exist for the investigation, if necessary, of complaints
concerning the activities of seafarer recruitment and placement
services, involving, as appropriate, representatives of shipowners and
seafarers.
- 8. Each Member which has ratified this Convention shall, in so far as
practicable, advise its nationals on the possible problems of signing on
a ship that flies the flag of a State which has not ratified the
Convention, until it is satisfied that standards equivalent to those
fixed by this Convention are being applied. Measures taken to this
effect by the Member that has ratified this Convention shall not be in
contradiction with the principle of free movement of workers stipulated
by the treaties to which the two States concerned may be parties.
- 9. Each Member which has ratified this Convention shall require that
shipowners of ships that fly its flag, who use seafarer recruitment and
placement services based in countries or territories in which this
Convention does not apply, ensure, as far as practicable, that those
services meet the requirements of this Standard.
- 10. Nothing in this Standard shall be understood as diminishing the
obligations and responsibilities of shipowners or of a Member with
respect to ships that fly its flag.
Guideline B1.4 – Recruitment and placement
Guideline B1.4.1 – Organizational and operational guidelines
- 11. When fulfilling its obligations under Standard A1.4, paragraph
1, the competent authority should consider:
- (a) taking the necessary measures to promote effective
cooperation among seafarer recruitment and placement
services, whether public or private;
- (b) the needs of the maritime industry at both the national
and international levels, when developing training
programmes for seafarers that form the part of the ship’s
crew that is responsible for the ship’s safe navigation and
pollution prevention operations, with the participation of
shipowners, seafarers and the relevant training
institutions;
- (c) making suitable arrangements for the cooperation of
representative shipowners’ and seafarers’ organizations in
the organization and operation of the public seafarer
recruitment and placement services, where they exist;
- (d) determining, with due regard to the right to privacy and
the need to protect confidentiality, the conditions under
which seafarers’ personal data may be processed by seafarer
recruitment and placement services, including the
collection, storage, combination and communication of such
data to third parties;
- (e) maintaining an arrangement for the collection and
analysis of all relevant information on the maritime labour
market, including the current and prospective supply of
seafarers that work as crew classified by age, sex, rank and
qualifications, and the industry’s requirements, the
collection of data on age or sex being admissible only for
statistical purposes or if used in the framework of a
programme to prevent discrimination based on age or
sex;
- (f) ensuring that the staff responsible for the supervision
of public and private seafarer recruitment and placement
services for ship’s crew with responsibility for the ship’s
safe navigation and pollution prevention operations have had
adequate training, including approved sea-service
experience, and have relevant knowledge of the maritime
industry, including the relevant maritime international
instruments on training, certification and labour
standards;
- (g) prescribing operational standards and adopting codes of
conduct and ethical practices for seafarer recruitment and
placement services; and
- (h) exercising supervision of the licensing or certification
system on the basis of a system of quality standards.
- 2. In establishing the system referred to in Standard A1.4,
paragraph 2, each Member should consider requiring seafarer
recruitment and placement services, established in its territory, to
develop and maintain verifiable operational practices. These
operational practices for private seafarer recruitment and placement
services and, to the extent that they are applicable, for public
seafarer recruitment and placement services should address the
following matters:
- (a) medical examinations, seafarers’ identity documents and
such other items as may be required for the seafarer to gain
employment;
- (b) maintaining, with due regard to the right to privacy and
the need to protect confidentiality, full and complete
records of the seafarers covered by their recruitment and
placement system, which should include but not be limited
to:
- (i) the seafarers’ qualifications;
- (ii) record of employment;
- (iii) personal data relevant to employment; and
- (iv) medical data relevant to employment;
- (c) maintaining up-to-date lists of the ships for which the
seafarer recruitment and placement services provide
seafarers and ensuring that there is a means by which the
services can be contacted in an emergency at all hours;
- (d) procedures to ensure that seafarers are not subject to
exploitation by the seafarer recruitment and placement
services or their personnel with regard to the offer of
engagement on particular ships or by particular
companies;
- (e) procedures to prevent the opportunities for exploitation
of seafarers arising from the issue of joining advances or
any other financial transaction between the shipowner and
the seafarers which are handled by the seafarer recruitment
and placement services;
- (f) clearly publicizing costs, if any, which the seafarer
will be expected to bear in the recruitment process;
- (g) ensuring that seafarers are advised of any particular
conditions applicable to the job for which they are to be
engaged and of the particular shipowner’s policies relating
to their employment;
- (h) procedures which are in accordance with the principles
of natural justice for dealing with cases of incompetence or
indiscipline consistent with national laws and practice and,
where applicable, with collective agreements;
- (i) procedures to ensure, as far as practicable, that all
mandatory certificates and documents submitted for
employment are up to date and have not been fraudulently
obtained and that employment references are verified;
- (j) procedures to ensure that requests for information or
advice by families of seafarers while the seafarers are at
sea are dealt with promptly and sympathetically and at no
cost; and
- (k) verifying that labour conditions on ships where
seafarers are placed are in conformity with applicable
collective bargaining agreements concluded between a
shipowner and a representative seafarers’ organization and,
as a matter of policy, supplying seafarers only to
shipowners that offer terms and conditions of employment to
seafarers which comply with applicable laws or regulations
or collective agreements.
- 3. Consideration should be given to encouraging international
cooperation between Members and relevant organizations, such as:
- (a) the systematic exchange of information on the maritime
industry and labour market on a bilateral, regional and
multilateral basis;
- (b) the exchange of information on maritime labour
legislation;
- (c) the harmonization of policies, working methods and
legislation governing recruitment and placement of
seafarers;
- (d) the improvement of procedures and conditions for the
international recruitment and placement of seafarers;
and
- (e) workforce planning, taking account of the supply of and
demand for seafarers and the requirements of the maritime
industry.
