Regulation 2.8 – Career and skill development and opportunities for seafarers’ employment

  1 Measures to achieve the objectives set out in Standard A2.8 might include:

• (a) agreements providing for career development and skills training with a shipowner or an organization of shipowners; or

• (b) arrangements for promoting employment through the establishment and maintenance of registers or lists, by categories, of qualified seafarers; or

• (c) promotion of opportunities, both on board and ashore, for further training and education of seafarers to provide for skill development and portable competencies in order to secure and retain decent work, to improve individual employment prospects and to meet the changing technology and labour market conditions of the maritime industry.

  1 Where registers or lists govern the employment of seafarers, these registers or lists should include all occupational categories of seafarers in a manner determined by national law or practice or by collective agreement.

  2 Seafarers on such a register or list should have priority of engagement for seafaring.

  3 Seafarers on such a register or list should be required to be available for work in a manner to be determined by national law or practice or by collective agreement.

  4 To the extent that national laws or regulations permit, the number of seafarers on such registers or lists should be periodically reviewed so as to achieve levels adapted to the needs of the maritime industry.

  5 When a reduction in the number of seafarers on such a register or list becomes necessary, all appropriate measures should be taken to prevent or minimize detrimental effects on seafarers, account being taken of the economic and social situation of the country concerned.