Ratification by Malta of the ILO Merchant Shipping (Minimum Standards) Convention, 1976 (No.147) and its Protocol of 1996

On the 10 January, 2002 Malta ratified the ILO Merchant Shipping (Minimum Standards) Convention, 1976 (No. 147) and its Protocol of 1996. Both instruments will enter into force for Malta on the 10 January, 2003. The Merchant Shipping (Minimum Standards) Convention, 1976 or as it is commonly referred to ILO Convention No 147, is the most important maritime convention to be adopted by the International Labour Organisation (ILO).

ILO 147 aims at ensuring the observance on merchant ships of a wide range of standards (including those laid down in other ILO Conventions) relating to safety, social security, shipboard conditions of employment and living arrangements. Its objective is to improve the efficiency and safety of navigation, enhance measures to protect the marine environment and advance seafarers' interests in the fields of health and safety, working conditions and trade union rights.

The Convention, which essentially applies to every seagoing ship employed for any commercial purpose, was adopted in 1976 and came into force in November 1981. To date the Convention has been ratified by 43 countries (including Malta). Prior to Malta’s ratification of the 1996 Protocol, this treaty was not yet in force and had been ratified by 4 countries namely, Ireland, Romania, Sweden and the United Kingdom. However, following Malta’s ratification, the Protocol will now enter into force internationally on the 10 January, 2003, that is, on the same date that it enters into force for Malta.(1)

ILO 147 requires that ratifying States have laws or regulations laying down, for ships registered in their territory, provisions which are "substantially equivalent" to those of the Conventions referred to in the Appendix to Convention 147 and in the Supplementary Appendix to the Protocol, in so far as such States are not otherwise bound to give full effect to the Conventions in question by virtue of having ratified them.

Moreover, ratifying flag States must ensure that the competent authority verifies, by inspection or other appropriate means, that nationally registered ships comply with national laws and regulations which apply the standards prescribed by the Convention and the Protocol, other applicable international labour conventions in force which they have ratified, and, as appropriate under national law, applicable collective agreements.

The port State control provisions of the Convention 147 provide that a ratifying State may, on the basis of a complaint or evidence that a ship does not conform to the standards of the Convention, inspect any foreign ship calling at its ports, regardless of whether the flag State has ratified Convention 147.

Preparations for Malta’s ratification to these two international instruments were initiated in 1996 when the Merchant Shipping Directorate of the Malta Maritime Authority had prepared a detailed study on Malta’s ratification to ILO Convention 147 in preparation for an ILO mission to Malta to advice on the matter. The study formed the basis of the work that followed, including the 2000 amendments to the Merchant Shipping Act, which paved the way for Malta’s ratification to these two instruments.

The Minister for Transport and Communications, Mr Censu Galea stated that acceptance by Malta of ILO Convention 147 and its 1996 Protocol is indeed another demonstration of Malta’s commitment, both as a flag State and as a port State, to international standards governing maritime safety and working conditions on board ships.

1. In terms of Article 6 of the 1996 Protocol, the Protocol comes into force 12 months after the date on which the ratifications of five ILO Members, three of which each have at least one million gross tonnage of shipping, have been registered.