CAMM Views 06-05: Fair Treatment of Seafarers: Support for IFSMAs Contribution

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06-05

Fair Treatment of Seafarers
Support for IFSMAs Contribution

Support

The lack of uniformity in the treatment of masters and crews after a maritime incident and the risks facing seafarers on a daily basis has led the Secretary General of the IMO and the Governing Body of the ILO to form a joint Working Group on the Fair Treatment to Seafarers. The group is composed of government representatives, seafarers and ship owners whose mission is to arrive at internationally accepted guidelines.

In March 2006 at the next session of the Working Group, the industrys draft guidelines will be formally proposed, however many have already viewed the draft response from ship-owners as a formless list of admonitions to states to do what they are already obliged to do under international and their respective national laws.

In summary, the industry makes no mention to assume any portion of the responsibility for the legal or financial consequences of a maritime disaster and do not offer any particulars into the methods, design or timetable for how investigations by governments against masters and crews are to be conducted.

What is looming over the horizon then is yet another thick document on our shelves which is formless in practical structure or intent and at once, impotent. What could be a hope for our profession to begin a slow walk away from the criminalization witch hunts that befall a master today seem once again to be lost in the vagaries of voting strengths within the halls of the IMO leaving ship owners to once again Rule the Day.

All is not lost perhaps.

IFSMA has voiced objections to the path that this project has taken and has issued their own draft proposal modeled on the 1991 IMO guidelines on oil pollution. The document contains specific and realistic language on how the fair treatment of seafarers could be accomplished and is a fair, balance and practical compromise between the varying interests of the three parties.

CAMM fully supports this IFSMA proposal as the correct direction in the route of this very important project.

The text of the IFSMA draft may be found at www.ifsma.org/fairtreament.

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