Answer
The most recent set of major updates to the Maritime Labour Convention (MLC, 2006) are the 2022 Amendments, which entered into force on 23 December 2024.
Key Updates & Requirements
- Social Connectivity (Internet Access): Shipowners must provide seafarers with reasonable internet access on board, with Port States urged to offer similar connectivity facilities in ports and anchorages.
- Food & Catering Quality: Mandates free provision of good quality drinking water and balanced, nutritious meals. Food and water supplies must be regularly inspected for quantity, quality, and nutritional value.
- Gender-Appropriate PPE: Requires shipowners to supply Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) in appropriate sizes to fit all seafarers, specifically accommodating the increasing number of female seafarers.
- Recruitment & Placement Safeguards: Private Recruitment and Placement Services (PRPS) must inform seafarers prior to engagement about financial protection systems that compensate for monetary losses resulting from agency or shipowner failures.
- Prompt Repatriation & Abandonment Cooperation: Flag States, Port States, and Labour-supplying States must actively cooperate to facilitate the prompt repatriation of abandoned seafarers.
- Medical Care & Deceased Seafarers: Guarantees immediate disembarkation for urgent medical care ashore. Requires shipowners to facilitate the prompt repatriation of the body or ashes of deceased seafarers.
- Recording & Reporting Fatalities: Member States are required to record and annually report all seafarer deaths to the International Labour Organization (ILO).
- Financial Security Documentation: Clarifies that documentary evidence of financial security may state the name of the registered owner if different from the shipowner/operator.