Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2005, published 95th ILC session (2006)

Merchant Shipping (Minimum Standards) Convention, 1976 (No. 147) - Brazil (Ratification: 1991)

The Committee notes the comments made by the Trade Union of Maritime Workers of the Port of Rio Grande concerning alleged non-observance of the international labour standards on board two vessels, N/T Dunay and N/T Borislav, both flying the flag of Ukraine, and the Government’s response to these comments. The Government had emphasized that Ukrainian legislation should be applied on board the vessels which are the subject of the comments of the union. Should non-compliance with the ILO standards be proven, international responsibility would lie with Ukraine, not Brazil.

The Committee recalls that, under Article 4, paragraph 1, of the Convention, if a Member which has ratified this Convention and in whose port a ship calls in the normal course of its business or for operational reasons receives a complaint or obtains evidence that the ship does not conform to the standards of this Convention, after it has come into force, it may prepare a report addressed to the government of the country in which the ship is registered, with a copy to the Director-General of the International Labour Office, and may take measures necessary to rectify any conditions on board which are clearly hazardous to safety or health. The Committee asks the Government to clarify whether any such report had been addressed to the Government of Ukraine in this particular case, and whether in the past such reports have been sent to the respective governments of the countries in which the ships are registered.