THE MARITIME LABOUR CONVENTION 2006 - A MASTER MARINER'S VIEW

摘要

Most of us are familiar with SOLAS, the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea, first adopted in 1914 after the 1912 Titanic disaster, which has been with us since that time. It has been greatly expanded through the years and constantly updated. The shipping fraternity puts its full trust in these regulations to sail and work on board a safe ship. Then in 1973 came MARPOL, or the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships. This was kick-started by oil spills such as the TORREY CANYON off the Sicily Isles in the late 1960's. In 1978 came STCW, the International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers. This was a start to get everybody who worked deep sea equally qualified as there was a lot of "licensing creativity" out there in those days. These three "pillars" underpinned the professional operation of ships at sea. Safety, Environment, Skills. Behind this all was the IMO (International Maritime Organization) which slowly but steadily inched and cajoled all the member countries towards a common approach.