Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2010, published 100th ILC session (2011)

Seafarers' Welfare Convention, 1987 (No. 163) - Brazil (Ratification: 1997)

Articles 2(1) and 5 of the Convention. Welfare facilities and services. The Committee notes that the Government reproduces the information it included in its previous report. Welfare facilities and services are provided by voluntary organizations in partnership with seafarers’ unions mainly in the form of access to telephones, fax machines, Internet, lounges, newspapers and magazines, etc. The Government adds that there have been no periodic reviews of these facilities. The Committee requests the Government to indicate measures taken or envisaged to ensure that the existing arrangements for welfare facilities and services are appropriate and adequate. The Committee recalls that useful guidance in this respect may be found in the Seafarers’ Welfare Recommendation, 1987 (No. 173), especially as regards the possibility of setting up welfare boards to keep under review the adequacy of existing welfare facilities (paragraph 9) and the need to establish not only meeting and recreation rooms but also sports facilities, educational facilities and facilities for religious observances and personal counselling (paragraph 12).

Article 3(2). Location of welfare facilities. The Committee notes the Government’s indication that welfare facilities and services are currently provided in the ports of Rio de Janeiro, Santos, Vitória and Paranaguá, and that discussions are under way to introduce similar facilities in the ports of Sepetiba and Macaé. The Committee requests the Government to indicate whether shipowners’ and seafarers’ organizations have been duly consulted on the selection of these ports and also to provide additional information on the voluntary organizations involved and the nature of welfare facilities and services envisaged.

Part V of the report form. Practical application. The Committee requests the Government to continue to provide information on the manner in which the Convention is applied in practice, including, for instance, the nature, location and number of welfare facilities and services in Brazilian ports and on board Brazilian-flagged ships, any projects or programmes currently implemented with the assistance of the International Committee on Seafarers’ Welfare (ICSW) and the number of seafarers having access to welfare facilities and services.

Finally, the Committee recalls that most of the provisions of this Convention have been incorporated in Regulation 4.4, Standard A4.4 and Guideline B4.4 of the Maritime Labour Convention, 2006 (MLC, 2006), and therefore ensuring compliance with Convention No. 163 would facilitate compliance with the corresponding requirements of the MLC, 2006. The Committee accordingly requests the Government to keep the Office informed of any progress made with respect to the process of ratification of the MLC, 2006.