Crew wages inspection campaign kicks off this weekend

Crew wages inspection campaign kicks off this weekend
Sam Chambers August 29, 2024 https://splash247.com/crew-wages-inspection-campaign-kicks-off-this-week...

The Tokyo and the Paris Memoranda of Understanding (MoU) on Port State Control are set to launch a three-month joint concentrated inspection campaign (CIC) on crew wages and seafarers’ employment agreements from September 1.

During the CIC, non-conformities could result in recording of a deficiency, instructions for the master to rectify, or even detention of the vessel. The results of the campaign will be presented to the governing bodies of both MoUs and potentially submitted to the International Labour Organization and the International Maritime Organization (IMO).

The campaign comes at a time when new cases of crew abandonment look set to smash annual records once again this year with international regulators at a loss on how to tackle one of shipping’s darkest scourges.

Under international law – the Maritime Labour Convention, 2006, as amended – seafarers should be paid at least once per month. Crews owed two months or more of pay or who are not provided with sufficient food, water and fuel are considered to have been abandoned.

Data from the IMO highlights the huge rise in abandonment cases. In just 10 years, known cases have soared from little more than a dozen a year to 143 in 2023.