Ilo International Labour Standards Department News

The International Labor Organization (ILO) will mark the coming into force of its historic Maritime Labor Convention, 2006, on August 20, 2013. The ILO Convention, known as “MLC, 2006”, will establish minimum working and living standards for seafarers and be an essential step toward ensuring fair competition and a level-playing field for quality shipowners flying the flags of ratifying countries. To mark the day, the ILO will organize a panel with high-level representatives of seafarers, shipowners and port authorities from Singapore's maritime sector, and Cleopatra Doumbia-Henry, Director of the ILO International Labour Standards Department, who is the key ILO expert on the Maritime Labor Convention, 2006 (MLC 2006).

The ILO’s Maritime Labour Convention has now been ratified by 30 countries, meaning it will go into effect in a year’s time. The charter sets out the labour rights of the world’s 1.2 million seafarers. The ILO has received the 30th ratification of the Maritime Labour Convention, 2006 (MLC, 2006) fulfilling the last condition for the first global standard that spans continents and oceans to go into effect in a year’s time. “This is great news for the world’s more than 1.2 million seafarers,” said ILO Director General Juan Somavia. The MLC, 2006 was adopted unanimously in 2006 but there were two requirements still to be met before it could come into force. The ratification by Russia and the Philippines fulfills the requirement that at least 30 ILO member countries ratify the Convention.