Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 1992, published 79th ILC session (1992)

Certification of Able Seamen Convention, 1946 (No. 74) - United States Virgin Islands

See under Convention No. 74, United States, as follows:

The Committee notes the Government's latest report. It hopes the Government will soon conclude its review and send a reply to its previous comments which read as follows:

The Committee has noted the information supplied in reply to its last direct request. The Government indicates that, although the legislation does not specifically address their duties, certificated able seamen must be capable of performing certain given tasks; the Government also lists further duties, to perform which an individual must hold a certificate, and others for which certification is not required. The Government makes no distinction in this respect as between able seamen-unlimited (whose conditions of certification comply with the Convention) and other categories of able seamen (for whom that is not the case). It is thus apparent that individuals certificated as able seamen-limited, able seamen-special, able seamen-offshore supply vessels, able seamen-sail and able seamen-fishing industry are, in the terms of Article 1 of the Convention, "deemed to be competent to perform any duty which may be required of a member of the crew serving in the deck department (other than an officer or leading or specialist rating)"; in this respect, they therefore hold a rating which is on an equal footing with that of able seamen-unlimited, thus being covered by the Convention, and not an "intermediate rating" considered, in terms of the first part of the understanding which accompanied the United States' ratification of the Convention, to be outside its scope. The Committee notes the Government's statement that the only classification of deckhands which does not fall within "specialist rating" is that of uncertificated "ordinary seaman", but observes that this does not accord with Article 1 of the Convention, which distinguishes able seamen from leading or specialist ratings.

The Committee recalls that under 46 USC sections 7307-7311a only able seamen-unlimited fulfil the minimum requirement of 36 months' service at sea (Article 2(4) of the Convention). It therefore refers to its direct request of 1985, in which it recalled also that, under the second part of that understanding, the Convention was to apply to sea-going merchant vessels of more than 100 gross registered tons (GRT) which operate outside the inland waters of the United States as defined under 33 USC section 151. The Committee pointed out that the Convention is not applied within the terms of that understanding, since, for vessels of more than 100 and less than 1600 GRT, no able seamen serving on board are required to hold a certificate in conformity with the Convention, and, for other vessels, only 50 per cent of able seamen are so required (46 USC section 7312).

The Committee is grateful for the new clarifications provided by the Government in its report. It once again requests the Government to indicate the steps taken or proposed to bring its legislation into conformity with Article 1 of the Convention.

[The Government is asked to report in detail for the period ending 30 June 1993.]