On Thursday 27 July, the Commission announced that it would like to integrate an agreement concluded in December 2016 between social partners in the maritime transport sector into the directive focusing on the implementation of the agreement concluded between the European Community Shipowners Association (ECSA) and the European Transport Workers Federations (ETF) (directive 2009/13/EC).
The Commissioner for Employment and Social Affairs, Marianne Thyssen, explained that the objective is to improve the protection of seafarers and help foster fair competition. She added that the improvement of working conditions could help boost the sector by attracting young workers. The Commissioner visibly appeared pleased with this development and concluded, “This proposal is an excellent example of the way in which social partners help the Commission to ensure that EU remains appropriate to its purpose”.
The aim of this review is essentially two-fold. Firstly, it highlights the notion of “abandonment” affecting seafarers. This is a specific vocabulary to the maritime sector and refers to the practices of certain shipowners who sometimes do not pay their sailors for months or provide them with food, medical assistance or the finances to return home after a voyage. In this regard, the proposals improve the protection of seafarers in cases of wages that have not been paid for up to two months or when seafarers are not provided with sufficient resources to maintain their ships. New provisions will also benefit the port authorities, which will see the rates of abandonment on ships decrease.
It is a significant challenge. According to the International Labour Organisation, around 192 merchant ships have been abandoned since 2004, 21 of which were flying the EU flag. In 2016, five merchant ships with 58 merchant seamen on board were abandoned in EU ports.
The proposal will also simplify mechanisms for executing pay and debt payments so that seafarers and their families do not have to face the problem of delayed payments and bureaucracy in the event of abandonment, death or long term incapacity (injuries or illnesses sustained at sea).
These provisions resume the agreement between social partners (the European Community Shipowners Association– ECSA – and the European Transport Workers’ Federation - ETF) in the maritime sector on 5 December last. On 12 December 2016, the two organisations called on the Commission to implement their agreement by way of a proposition for a Council decision under the terms of Article 155 of the TFEU. It should be pointed out that the agreement takes into account the amendments adopted during the 103rd session of the International Labour Conference (ILC) of 2014 to improve the Marine Labour Convention (MLC), whose new provisions have been in force since 18 January 2017, with the exception of the Netherlands, Italy and Lithuania, who will implement them in January 2018.
Social partners pleased. The ECSA and the ETF welcomed the announcement by the European Commission. The ECSA pointed out that this was the third time that social partners in the marine sector had reached an agreement that called for binding modalities at a European level. ETF spokesperson Mark Dickinson called on the Council to adopt the proposal “as soon as possible”. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)