20
May 22

The Bulletin: 20th May

Policy Updates

Our Employment specialists, Tim Springett and Hannah Gilbert, have been attending the fourth meeting of the Special Tripartite Committee of the International Labour Organization (ILO), comprising representatives from shipowners, seafarers and governments. 

The deliberations focussed upon a number of amendments to the Maritime Labour Convention, 2006 and the Chamber’s input was coordinated by the International Chamber of Shipping. The shipowners group had co-sponsored five of the eight amendments which aim to improve the working conditions of seafarers, as well as address the difficulties encountered during the ongoing pandemic, particularly regarding repatriation and the provision of urgent medical care by coastal states.

Additionally, the Chamber participated as a member of the shipowners group of the Joint Maritime Commission’s Subcommittee on wages for seafarers and after discussions over two days, a resolution was agreed to increase the ILO basic monthly minimum wage for able seafarers over the next three-year period, starting from 1 January 2023 at US$658.  This has been a considerable piece of work which will deliver significantly improved compensation and benefits for our single most valued resource, our seafarers.  Tim will be discussing the outputs with the Employment committee, but if you have any questions then please contact him here.

Responding to the call for evidence by the Department of Transport on shore power, the UK Chamber of Shipping has urged the UK Government to establish a regulatory framework with clear mandatory targets for ports to install shore power charging points across the UK’s coast and for ships to use them to drive the widespread adoption of shore power and other zero-emission options. You can read more here.

Events

Annual Summer Lunch 2022

Our Annual Summer Lunch, kindly sponsored by V.Group and Witherby Publishing Group. This will be held at the wonderful Mansfield Traquair. We have had a great response and we look forward to seeing more than 160 of you in Edinburgh on 14th June.  Jenny Gilruth (MSP) and Minister of Transport for the Scottish Government and our President, Graham Westgarth, will be speaking to our guests. A big thank you to our sponsors V.Group and Witherbys for supporting this event. Please note ticket sales for the lunch will close today.

Queen’s Jubilee ‘Ships Salute – 12 noon, Saturday 4th June

Thank you to the numerous members who have confirmed they will be participating in the Queen’s Jubilee ‘Ship Salute’. We will be promoting your support over the next few weeks. If any other member would like to participate, please visit our website here.

Have a good weekend.

Peter