CONCENTRATED INSPECTION CAMPAIGN ON WORKING AND LIVING CONDITIONS

The 20 Maritime Authorities (EU Members plus Canada, Croatia, Iceland, Norway and the Russian Federation) of the Paris Memorandum of Understanding on Port State Control will start a concentrated inspection campaign focussing on living conditions as of 1 October 2004. The inspection campaign will last 3 months, ending on 31 December 2004.

In practice the concentrated inspection campaign will mean that during every port State control inspection within the Paris MOU region, the working and living conditions shall be verified in more detail for compliance with the international standards of ILO Merchant Shipping (Minimum Standards) Convention, 1976 (No. 147) and the Protocol 1996 to ILO147.

The inspections shall be focussed on the accommodation (including hospital), the galley and food and water supplies and storage, as well as hours of work/rest and working schedules. For this purpose Port State Control Officers shall use a list of 12 selected areas and items of inspection.

If deficiencies are found, the Port State Control Officer will conduct an in depth investigation into working and living conditions on board.

When deficiencies are found, sanctions by the port State may vary from recording the deficiency and instructing the master to rectify within 14 days to the detention of the ship until all deficiencies have been rectified.

In case of detention, the ship could face the risk of follow-up inspections in other Paris MOU ports and publication in the monthly list of detentions issued by the Secretariat of the Paris MOU.

It is expected that approximately 4000 inspections will be carried out during the CIC.

All inspections will be inserted in the SIRENAC database of the Paris MOU and will be recorded on an evaluation form. The results of the campaign shall be analysed early next year and will be submitted to the Committee of the Paris MOU.

It is expected that the next concentrated inspection campaign will focus on the implementation of the Global Maritime Distress and Safety System.

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Notes to editors:

Port State Control is a check on visiting foreign ships to see that they comply with international rules on safety, pollution prevention and seafarers living and working conditions.  It is a means of enforcing compliance where the owner and flag State have failed in their responsibility to implement or ensure compliance. The port State can require defects to be put right, and detain the ship for this purpose if necessary. It is therefore also a port State’s defence against visiting substandard shipping.

Regional Port State Control was initiated in 1982 when fourteen European countries agreed to co-ordinate their port State inspection effort under a voluntary agreement know as the Paris Memorandum of Understanding on Port State Control (Paris MOU). Current membership includes 15  EU countries plus Canada, Croatia, Iceland, Norway and the Russian Federation. The European Commission, although not a signatory to the Paris MOU, is also a member of the Committee.

With the new members joining the European Union, the MOU is also expected to expand to 26 members in the near future. The Baltic States Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, as well as Cyprus Malta and Bulgaria have be granted co-operative status.

Inspection reports are recorded on a central database SIReNaC located in St Malo - France, available for search and daily updating by MOU member countries. The Secretariat of the MOU is provided by the Netherlands Ministry of Transport, Public works and Water Management.

The Paris MOU has been a blueprint for the introduction of regional regimes of port State control in the Asia Pacific Rim (Tokyo MOU), Latin America (Viña del Mar), the Mediterranean, Caribbean and other emerging regional port State control regimes. Canada and Russia are members of both the Paris MOU and the Tokyo MOU.