SAMI Briefing Maritime Labour Convention FAQs and Text March 2013

How to use this FAQThe Maritime Labour Convention, 2006 (MLC, 2006) 1 was adopted at the94th (Maritime) Session of the International Labour Conference on 23 February 2006.In order to help promote greater ownership of the MLC, 2006 among ILOconstituents and also to facilitate the understanding of the Convention, the InternationalLabour Office has prepared this database of answers to “Frequently Asked Questions”(FAQ).This database is intended to help persons engaged in the study or application of theMLC, 2006 to find answers to numerous questions. The answers provided in the databasecannot in themselves be cited as authoritative legal opinions. This is because, in the firstplace, the precise requirements of the Convention are those contained in the national lawsor regulations adopted by each country to implement the MLC, 2006. No authoritativeanswer can, therefore, be given to any question without reference to the applicable nationallegal system. In the second place, the answers in the database are intended to be short andconcise explanations rather than legal opinions. Such opinions can be provided by the ILOto governments and shipowners’ and seafarers’ organizations upon request and on theunderstanding that only the International Court of Justice is competent to give authoritativeinterpretations of international labour Conventions.Finally, this database will be frequently updated. For this purpose, governments andshipowners’ and seafarers’ organizations are invited to provide comments on or additionsto the answers given, especially in the light of the knowledge gained in their involvementin the preparation of the Convention and/or taking account of their day-to-day experiencein the application of laws and regulations or other measures implementing the MLC, 2006.Comments or additions will be referred to in the database and, in many cases, editedversions will be integrated into it. Comments or additions clearly identifying the questionsconcerned should be sent by electronic mail to faq@ilo.org.Some other useful sources of informationFor those seeking a more detailed understanding of the issues or context of provisionit is important to also review the ILO’s official records called “Provisional Records” (PR)of the meetings leading to the adoption of Convention text. These are all easily accessibleon the ILO MLC, 2006 website. 2In addition for each meeting over the 5 year period 2001-February 2006 detailedCommentaries and other papers were prepared by the International Labour Office orsubmitted by constituents. These may also be of assistance in understating variousprovisions and the reasoning behind them. They are also available on the MLC, 2006website. 3Subsequently, in 2008, two international tripartite meetings of experts were held inresponse to resolutions adopted by the International Labour Conference when it adopted1 To be found at: www.ilo.org/mlc2 ibid.3 ibid.FAQ 1