Do ships actually follow the Maritime Labour Convention?

[Ivan Cloherty]

#27 Ivan I must admit I have never heard of it the MLC is it a government dept. JS

John, there are that many Conventions and changes of names and three or four organisations becoming consolidated into one it is hard to keep track. MLC is probably an offshoot of ILO. We still have in Torbay, men sitting in a hut on the top of a cliff wearing their CG uniforms looking through binoculars and monitoring VHF transmissions, although there have been moves to close it on costs grounds. They were also muting about closing the Torbay lifeboat station on costs grounds, but the RNLI may not have to worry about that because the volunteers are leaving in droves around the UK coast because of the dictacts eminating from Poole by penpushers and diversity supremos whose latest dictat is that disabled people should not be prevented from joining lifeboat crews. I think the meaning of 'volunteers' and 'lifeboat service' has been lost on the administrators in Poole who seem more intent on diversity and other targets rather than the practicalities of the job.

Anyway getting back to MLC and the young/old person raising the question, all I am saying is that if you are approaching taking up a sea life from the perspective of the question asked, then perhaps a sea life is not for you.

[Alan Briggs]

Ensuite sweet shower/toilet, wow.

[j.sabourn]

#32 will just assume then MLC stands for Melbourne Loves Cricket . JS

[James Curry]

Well played England good result yesterday
Anyway I see young Asdov Mastaf has not been back since his original post.
Maybe he has been playing a game Mastaf = Fatsam not worked out the Asdov bit yet

[David Dearsley]

The MLC is the Maritime Labour Convention of the International Labour Organization and was adopted (i.e. agreed) in 2006. It is a consolidation of over 100 old and outdated previous single subject Conventions. It applies to all ships and has been accepted and included in the law of over 3/4 of the worlds ships which must inspect each ship and issue them with a certificate only if they comply with the convention standards. It is also enforced by many/most of the worlds ports in which ships are regularly inspected and detained if non-compliant. After life-saving equipment and safety of navigation failures, MLC deficiencies are the most common reason for detentions.
Inspectors cannot check whether work hour records on board are correctly completed or records of safety inspections are accurate but they are checked and failure to complete them can be a detention offence.
Equally, a new law cannot dictate that all cabins will be single berth when a proportion of of the ships (and yachts, which are covered by the Convention) already have different sleeping arrangements. So the MLC, like most other Conventions, has a "grandfather clause" which provides that existing ships may continue to operate with old structural conditions, although labour conditions must change, although all new ships must meet the new standards.
Yes, conditions were different in the old days, including when I went to sea, but the industry has made a determined effort to bring standards up to date and in line with conditions ashore.
Hope this helps - but there are still too many rogue employers out there operating rust buckets, so make sure any employer you might intend working for operates in line with SOLAS, MARPOL and MLC Conventions.

[j.sabourn]

So it only applies to countries who sign up to accept these conditions . For those who dont what power of legality do they have to arrest that vessel and detain it ? If the country of destination knows the vessel requesting clearance inwards knows in advance such vessel is not up to their standard why allow it entry. The only way round that would be to claim a port of refuge like it was always there at sea , then disallow clearance for sailing which would be an international offence ? Shipping is universal and the seaways of the world are international and no one has personal claim to any of them . The rag tag shipping of the world will continue until compliance is accepted by everyone and that has yet to be achieved . Know I have sailed on ships that have broken the law and I even walked off one , the real authority’s knew her faults and she still sailed with no action being taken to my knowledge .Thanks for clarifying the MLC stands for however I never had heard of it before . In 2006 I had been retired from going to sea for 4 years so no wonder had never heard of them Thanks once again .JS

[j.sabourn]

#33 50 years ago one was more worried about getting a bucket of fresh water . Like going from the sublime to the ridiculous . The amount of arguments on ships about water consumption lost count years ago . Which came first the luxurious bathroom facilities and the big double bed , or the distillers and evaporators. I think they got their priorities mixed up , who wants to live in sumptuous surroundings and can’t brush their teeth .JS

[James Curry]

On that class of ship the fresh water generator could produce that much the Mate had the luxury of doing a fresh water wash down for his lads to do a bit of painting. Big difference in crew manning on that ship 19 + maybe 2 cadets compared to my initail early years on General cargo vessels manning levels of 40+?

[j.sabourn]

Different years and different ships .JS .

[Des Taff Jenkins]

On The 3rd of March 1952 at 1am on a pitch black night in a roaring hurricane I was washed over the side of the Basford off Sable island on the Canadian coast, I managed to hang onto a door handle, no one knew I was there. I was washed back aboard and staggered up to the wheel house where the Skipper was screaming at my mate to keep his F eyes open. I had to go back along the deck to change into dry gear. Now that is the time one should have said stuff this for a bunch of bananas, I just got on with it, but I stayed another 13 years at sea and loved every minute of it.
Des