A new global agreement covering the wages and working conditions of more than 50,000 mariners was concluded Nov. 13 in San Francisco by the International Bargaining Forum (IBF). The IBF consists of the Joint Negotiating Group (JNG) representing global shipowners and ship managers, and the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) representing mariners.
The agreement, which now goes for final endorsement by the policymaking bodies of both groups, follows a year of intensive negotiations in different parts of the world.
“This is excellent news for crews who sail on flag-of-convenience (FOC) ships covered by ITF agreements,” noted SIU Secretary-Treasurer David Heindel, who serves as vice chairman of the federation’s Seafarers’ Section and who participated in the negotiations. “The new agreement means better wages and benefits and more flexibility.”
The package moves away from the single “benchmark” for an AB’s wages, which for many years has marked the minimum standards set by the ITF for FOC ships, to a wider set of wage and social benefits—including important improvements in compensation for disability or death. It also gives greater flexibility for national negotiations within a global set and verified framework.
Based on a “model ship” with 23 crew members, the new agreement provides an increase in the minimum levels of the existing ITF Total Crew Cost (TCC) agreement of $2,173 a month— equivalent to two extra days’ leave and subsistence. There also will be a further increase of $1,247 related to the cost of improvements in medical and sickness benefits and death and disability compensation.
The agreement further provides new provisions ensuring that mariners will not face pressure to carry out cargo handling or other work normally done in port by skilled and qualified dockworkers.
The agreement provides a number of concrete benefits for IBF members that will not be available to other companies covered by ITF acceptable agreements, let alone for those without any such agreements. The maximum percentage of the total wage package that can, by local agreement, be allocated to social educational or training benefits for seafarers is increased from 10 to 15 percent; a new shipboard disputes procedure to resolve problems that arise for IBF members’ ships has been established; and the ITF will issue a “Green Certificate” to IBF members and will ensure that its worldwide network of inspectors concentrate most of their attention on non-IBF ships.
The ITF also has agreed that 5 percent of the contributions made by IBF members to its Seafarers’ International Welfare Assistance and Protection Fund will be paid into a special account jointly administered by the ITF and the JNG and that will be used exclusively for mariners employed on the ships covered by the IBF agreement to provide benefits such as on-board welfare facilities, crew communications and assistance or for crew members’ families.
“This is a unique step forward in establishing minimum conditions in what has become the world’s first global industry,” said ITF General Secretary David Cockroft. “Following long and intense negotiations, the result is a win-win situation. The seafarers covered by the agreement will have better social and health benefits as well as better wages, and the national ITF affiliates will have more flexibility to negotiate conditions which match local circumstances.”
Seafarers’ Section Chair Brian Orrell, who led the ITF negotiating team, said “We have achieved a major change in the way this industry operates. For the companies which are members of the IBF, there is an atmosphere of trust and confidence which allows us to concentrate the attention of our inspectors on bad ship operators who make money by employing seafarers under substandard conditions and often then abandoning them.”
The JNG, which includes the International Maritime Employers’ Committee and the International Mariners Management Committee of Japan also welcomed the result.
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