Manning up

摘要

In a global survey undertaken by the International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF) in 2011, seafarer respondents cited serious problems experienced with crewing agents. These included charges made to seafarers for finding them work, excessive deductions from wages, long delays in payment, wages not paid according to the terms and conditions, travel expenses not returned, neglect of crew safety, working and living conditions, and the existence of blacklists.Such malpractices should come to an end thanks to the provisions on recruitment and placement services (RPS) in the Maritime Labour Convention (MLC) 2006 drawn up by the ILO. On 20 August, the MLC became enforceable in the first 30 countries that had ratified it by the same date a year earlier.