Stress on a ship can often be resolved with a simple conversation, especially if afterwards, our Chaplain can gently discuss the legal obligations to seafarers’ wellbeing with those involved. To ensure we can do this with clarity, our Chaplains and Board received an excellent briefing on the Maritime Labour Convention (MLC) from AMSA’s Simon Robards at our Centre recently.
Mr Robards confirmed that whatever nation a ship is registered in, when they are in Australian waters, they need to uphold seafarers’ rights as per the MLC and AMSA is committed to ensuring that they do so. He said each ship should have their own onboard complaints system. Seafarers could also anonymously raise an issue using a form on the AMSA website before they arrived in an Australian port. It’s at: Maritime Labour Convention on-shore complaint form.
Issues where seafarers have asked for help include being expected to work beyond the requirements of a maximum of 14 hours a day, 72 hours per week, of not having access to nutritionally appropriate food or safe water, safety concerns, broken laundry facilities and restricted access to shore leave.
MtS Sydney Chaplains made over 600 ship visits in the past year as well as running our seafarers’ help and recreation centre 7 days a week.
