The Member Authorities of the Tokyo and the Paris Memoranda of Understanding (MoU) on Port State Control will launch a joint Concentrated Inspection Campaign (CIC) on crew wages and seafarers’ employment agreements (MLC, 2006).
The purpose of the campaign is:
- to create awareness within the shipping industry about the requirements on crew wages and seafarer employment agreements (MLC); and
- to verify that ships comply with these requirements.
This inspection campaign will be held for three months, commencing from September 1 and ending November 30. The campaign will examine specific areas related to crew wages, seafarers’ employment agreements and financial securities (repatriation and shipowners’ liability) (MLC, 2006) during regular Port State Control inspections.
A ship will be subject to only one inspection under this CIC during the period of the campaign. Port State Control Officers (PSCOs) will use a pre-defined questionnaire to assess that crew wages, seafarers’ employment agreements (SEAs) and financial securities provided comply with the relevant MLC requirements.
If non-conformities are found, actions by the port State may vary from recording a deficiency and instructing the master to rectify it within a certain period of time to detaining the ship until the serious deficiencies have been rectified or until the port State has accepted a proposal for a plan of action. In the case of detention, publication in the monthly detention lists of the Tokyo and Paris MoU websites will take place.
The results of the campaign will be analyzed and findings will be presented to the governing bodies of both MoUs for possible submission to the ILO and IMO.
Photo credit: iStock/ maroke
