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Flags
of Convenience (FOC) states, which
register ships, have little powers
to enforce international rules
relating to working and living
conditions of seafarers aboard ships
in the international registers.
The
report, produced recently as part of
the International Labour
Organisation’s Sectoral Activities
Programme to the group of experts
considering conditions aboard ships
in international registers, compared
conditions of seafarers under open
registers with those whose ships
operated under other types of flag.
The
report focused on the inspection of
living and working conditions,
restrictions on the use of foreign
seafarers, legislation and
collective agreements for nationals
and non-nationals along with
employment conditions appertaining
to recruitment, minimum age, wages ,
health and social security.
Information
from the Bahamas, Lebanon, Liberia,
Malta, the Marshall Islands, Panama
and Vanuatu are compared with
replies from 53 other countries,
while detailed case studies on the
maritime industry in Denmark, India,
Isle of Man, Panama and the
Philippines provide a background to
the report.
The
report noted that while the flag
states may well have laws
prescribing the living and working
conditions of seafarers aboard ships
using their register, there is
limited ability to enforce such
standards, while the seafarers
themselves may find it difficult to
pursue grievance procedures, with a
lack of institutional provisions for
the protection of foreign seafarers.
And
while the authors suggest that the
seafarers aboard open register ships
have some of the characteristics of
migrant workers, unlike migrant
workers they have no rights within
the state in which they legally
work.
Seafarers,
it is suggested, when working aboard
open register vessels, have limited
access to state institutions or
processes in the flag state that
might provide them with protection
in cases of abuse or potential
abuse.
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