Membership In the - Council of American Master Mariners

Déjà Vu All Over Again: Old Battle, New War
by Father
Sinclair Oubre
CAMM Chaplain
#3220-A
In September,
I was privileged
to
attend the
C o m p a n y
of Master
Mariners of
Canada’s conference
on the
Maritime Labour Convention of 2006. I
came away with a few challenging facts:
1) MLC 2006 is considered the
“new” fourth pillar of international
maritime regulation. It joins
SOLAS, ISM and STCW.
2) It will come into full force on
August 20, 2013.
3) Many ratifying states have not
completed their Declaration of
Maritime Labour Compliance
(DMLC) Part I, this will make it
difficult for operators to know
what will be required of them
to receive certification for their
ships.
4) In the next ten months, tens of
thousands of ships will need to be
inspected and receive their certificates
of compliance from their
flag state.
5) Ship owners should be doing
gap analyses, and preparing for
MLC 2006 inspections even if the
DMLC Part I is not complete. It
will take upwards of six months
to prepare a vessel for inspection.
6) Though vessels from non-signatory
countries (the U.S. is one
of these) will be seeking letters
or certificates of voluntary
compliance from a Recognized
Organization (i.e., classification
societies), there is no obligation
that signatory countries’ port
state control must accept these
certificates. Shipowners from non
signatory flag states should anticipate
regular MLC 2006 port state
control inspections.
I made a presentation on MLC 2006
Section 4.4. This section calls on signatory
countries to ensure that seafarer
centers are easily accessible. In addition,
they are to promote the development of
these centers so as to provide seafarers
access to adequate welfare facilities.
When I asked a Canadian official
about how Canada was going to “promote”
the development of seafarer centers,
he responded by saying that this
was not his department’s area of responsibility.
When I asked whose area or
responsibility it was, he responded that
he was not sure.
Leaving the conference, I was overwhelmed
with a feeling of déjà vu. When
the Maritime Transportation Security
Act was being rolled out, the focus was
on the number of security lights installed
or the height of the fences a facility needed
to be in compliance. Little to no attention
was paid to seafarers’ right to shore
leave and escorting through facilities.
Now that the MLC 2006 is being rolled
out, again attention is on the physical
structures on the vessels and company
operating procedures, while no attention
is focused on “promoting” seafarer
welfare centers.
Just like with shore leave, the flag states
and the maritime industry are ignoring
this section; they are assuming that the
seafarer centers will “cover” this, while at
the same time, doing little to assist them
in “promoting” or finding the resources
to operate these land-based facilities.
In recent years, I have seen a number
of seafarer centers close because
they could not raise sufficient operating
funds. The government and the industry
continue to play “dodge the costs,” and
elderly folks in church pews continue to
provide millions of dollars in subsidies
to the maritime industry for seafarer
welfare.
After a truly great conference, the
primary lesson I learned was that seafarer
welfare agents will have to raise
their voices as loudly and persistently
on to have MLC 2006 Section 4.4’s full
implementation, as they have defending
seafarers’ right to shore leave.
Apostleship of the Sea -
United States of America
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Catholic Mariners and the official
Organization for Catholic Cruise
Ship Priests and Maritime Ministers
Please contact us if you are
interested in becoming an
AOS-USA member!
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www.aos-usa.org
The Council of American Master Mariners, Inc. December 2012 Sidelights 13