Observation (CEACR) - adopted 2006, published 96th ILC session (2007)

The Committee notes the information provided by the Government. It draws the Government’s attention to the following points.

Article 4 of the Convention. The Government refers, with regard to employment offices for seafarers, to the Register of Personnel of the Merchant Marine established by Decree No. 463/968 of 23 July 1968. However, according to the observations made by the Single National Union of Seafarers and Allied Workers (SUNTMA), this Register has been abolished since 1973 and the period of dictatorship. It was successively replaced by an employment office (in the 1990s) and more recently by an office for the recruitment of seafarers, which has unfortunately never been operational. The Committee recalls that, under the terms of the Convention, each Member agrees that “there shall be organised and maintained an efficient and adequate system of public employment offices”, which may be organized either by representative associations of shipowners and seafarers jointly under the control of a central authority, or by the State itself. It requests the Government to provide information in its next report on the organization and maintenance of employment offices for seafarers.

Article 5. As the Government indicated in previous reports that the bipartite advisory committee for seafarers, established by Decree No. 600/77, had not yet been set up in practice, the Committee has been requesting information for several years on the effect given to this Article in practice. Once again in its report the Government confines itself to enumerating the existing legislative provisions, without replying directly to the issue raised. The Committee recalls that, under the terms of the Convention, external advisory committees for the supervision and the provision of advice concerning free public employment offices have to be constituted. It therefore requests the Government to provide information on the constitution of such committees in its next report and, in particular, to indicate whether or not the bipartite advisory committee created by Decree No. 600/77 has been set up in practice.

Article 7. Under the terms of the Convention, the contract of engagement of seafarers has to include the necessary guarantees for protecting all parties concerned. Moreover, seafarers must be able to examine the contract before and after signing. However, according to the SUNTMA, certain maritime enterprises recruit non-unionized personnel and impose contracts without allowing them to examine the content or, even less so, to negotiate modifications. The Committee requests the Government to provide information on the measures taken to ensure the protection of the contracting parties in its next report.