Maritime Labour Convention
Bangladesh set to miss ratification deadline
Bangladesh is set to miss an August 20 deadline by the International Labour Organisation to ratify the Maritime Labour Convention of the UN body risking the restriction on entry of vessels carrying Bangladeshi flag in overseas ports. Officials of the labour ministry said the Convention would not be ratified by the deadline set by the ILO as the proposal of ratifying it was yet to be placed before the cabinet as they were waiting for the law ministry vetting.
Business leaders fear that entrance to overseas ports of as many as 71 vessels carrying Bangladeshi flag will be subject to restriction if Bangladesh fails to ratify it by the deadline.
‘If Bangladeshi vessels cannot enter the ports, we will have to hire foreign vessels, which might cause additional cost,’ said Chittagong Chamber of Commerce and Industry president Mahabubul Alam in a recent letter to the labour ministry.
Mahbub on Sunday told New Age that they were disappointed that the government was set to fail to ratify the Convention in time.
‘An uncertainty may create in our shipping industry after August 20. The government must ratify the Convention to protect the industry. But we are not satisfied with the government’s efforts on it,’ Alam said.
The ILO’s Maritime Labour Convention, 2006 and Seafarers Identity Documents Convention (Revised), 2003 were formulated to protect the interest of crew of ocean-going vessels.
Bangladeshi mariners face problems when they try to get jobs on any foreign ship for not ratifying these two conventions.
Maritime Labour Convention, 2006 was adopted during the 94th Session of the ILO on February 23, 2006. The Convention provides most comprehensive code regarding seafarers’ rights, and the obligations of states and ship owners with respect to these rights.
The Convention incorporates the fundamental principles of many ILO conventions and brings together and updates standards of 68 existing ILO instruments (Conventions and Recommendations) into one.
Department of Shipping officials blamed the labour ministry for dilly-dally in ratifying the conventions.
A DoS official said they were the authority to regulate the ships in the country. ‘But the matter is not in our hands.’
‘The shipping ministry has appointed the labour ministry as focal point to deal the MLC, 2006 instead of the DoS. For the last three years, the labour ministry has been working on it. But it could not finalise the issues yet.
‘We had prepared the 14 mandatory compliance issues for our ships three years ago. Subsequently we had sent it to the shipping ministry to get approval to ratify the Convention. But, the shipping ministry directly sent the matter to the labour ministry,’ he said.
He also said the DoS last month wrote to the labour ministry to quicken the process of getting cabinet approval.
DoS director general Zobair Ahmed told New Age on Sunday that the MLC should be ratified within August 20.
‘But, we are going to miss the deadline,’ he said.
‘However, I believe that any of our 73 vessels would not be put in crisis to enter in any country as we have certified all our vessels. We have certified that our vessels are compliant with 14 mandatory compliance issues including salary, accommodation, health, environment and safety of the seafarers,’ Zobair said.
With this certification the vessels can freely anchor in the international ports until 2015. But the vessels will face difficulty when the IMO inspection will take place after that period, he said.
Labour secretary Mikail Shipar told New Age, ‘Last week we have sent the MLC, 2006 proposal to the law ministry for its vetting. After completion of the scrutinising we will submit it to the Cabinet Division for approval.’
The labour secretary also said, ‘I hope we will be able to ratify the MLC, 2006 in the next cabinet meeting. There is no problem to sign the Convention after its deadline on August 20.’
Until August 16, 2013, 51 countries out of 170 member countries of IMO have ratified MLC, 2006. No Asian country including India and China are yet to sign the Convention.
-With New Age input
