Singapore Passes Legislation to Give Effect to the Third Group of Amendments to the Maritime Labour Convention 2006

On 5 June 2018, the International Labour Conference (ILC) at its 107th Session approved the third group of amendments to the Maritime Labour Convention 2006. The amendments were agreed by the Special Tripartite Committee on 27 April 2018 at its third meeting at the International Labour Organisation (ILO) headquarters in Geneva. The agreed amendments were the result of the work undertaken by the ILO, in view of the Resolution adopted by the ILC at its 94th (Maritime ) Session concerning the effects of maritime piracy on the shipping industry, and concern Regulations 2.1, 2.2, and 2.5 of the Convention which deal with the seafarers’ employment agreement (SEA), the seafarers’ right to be paid wages, and the seafarers’ right to be repatriated, respectively.

In particular, the amendments stipulate that a new paragraph will be inserted to Standard A 2.1. ensuring that a SEA shall continue to have effect while a seafarer is held hostage on board a ship or ashore by pirates or armed robbers. The term ‘piracy’ is given the same meaning as in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea 1982 (UNCLOS). Armed robbery against ships is defined as ‘any illegal act of violence or detention or any act of depredation, or threat thereof, other than an act of piracy, committed for private ends and directed against a ship or against persons or property on board such a ship, within a State’s internal waters, archipelagic waters and territorial sea, or any act of inciting or of intentionally facilitating an act described above’.

Furthermore, a new paragraph will be inserted to Standard A 2.2. stating that, where a seafarer is held hostage on board a ship or ashore by pirates or armed robbers, wages and other contractual benefits under the SEA, relevant collective bargaining agreements or applicable national laws, shall continue to be paid during the whole period of captivity and until the seafarer is released and duly repatriated or, where the seafarer dies while in captivity until the date of death as determined in accordance with national laws or regulations.

Finally, in Regulation 2.5, paragraph 8 will be replaced to ensure that the seafarers’ right to be repatriated shall not lapse where a seafarer is held hostage on board a ship or ashore by pirates and armed robbers. The terms piracy and armed robbery against ships shall have the same meaning as in Standard A2.1.

According to the process to be followed for the amendment of the Maritime Labour Convention 2006 under Article XIV of the Convention, the agreed amendments have now been notified to all Member States whose ratification of the Convention was registered before the date of the 107th Session of the ILC. The Member States will have two years from that notification to express a formal disagreement to the agreed amendments. Unless more than 40 per cent of ratifying Member States, representing not less than 40 per cent of the world gross tonnage, have formally expressed their disagreement with the amendments, they will enter into force six months after the end of the two years. Since no formal disagreements have been expressed, the expected date for entry into force is 26 December 2020.

Singapore is one of the very first States to pass legislation to enable domestic law to give effect to the third group of amendments to the Maritime Labour Convention 2006. On 25 March 2020, the Singapore Parliament passed a Bill to amend the Merchant Shipping (Maritime Labour Convention) Act 2014, which will take the force of law later this year. The Bill focuses on two points. First, it makes any necessary amendments to Singapore law to enhance the employment protection for captive seafarers. Secondly, it provides insurers with a statutory right to become subrogated to seafarers’ rights where, under a contract of insurance or other financial security, an insurer has paid for liabilities arising from a shipowner’s obligation to repatriate a seafarer.

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Dr Zoumpoulia Amaxilati

I am a lecturer in shipping and trade law at the Institute of International Shipping and Trade Law at Swansea University where I teach Admiralty law, Charterparties: law and practice, Carriage of goods by sea, land and air, and Tort law. I am a graduate of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, and hold an LLM degree in Maritime Law from the University of Southampton. I also completed my PhD degree in maritime law with emphasis on seafarers’ rights at the University of Southampton in 2019. Before joining the Institute, I worked as a lecturer in law at Queen Mary, University of London where I taught tort law. I was also a tutor in law at the University of Southampton. I am a qualified lawyer in Greece and prior to her PhD studies I worked as a lawyer at the Ministry of Justice, Transparency and Human Rights of Greece. My primary research focuses on international maritime labour law and seafarers’ rights, international maritime law, public international law, including international law of the sea, and tort law. I have recently published a book chapter in Baris Soyer and Andrew Tettenborn (Ed), Disruptive Technologies, Climate Change and Shipping (Informa Law from Routledge) on the human element in autonomous shipping. I am a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. I am also a member of the Society of Legal Scholars and the Women in Shipping and Trading Association.

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