Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2012, published 102nd ILC session (2013)

Unemployment Indemnity (Shipwreck) Convention, 1920 (No. 8) - Iraq (Ratification: 1966)

Articles 2 and 3 of the Convention. Unemployment indemnity in the event of shipwreck. The Committee notes that the Government is still not in a position to report any concrete progress concerning the application of the Convention. It recalls that section 65 of the Labour Code of 1987 (which is reproduced in section 66 of the new draft Labour Code communicated to the Office in July 2010) falls short of the requirement of Article 2 of the Convention for an indemnity against unemployment in the event of shipwreck which may not be less than two months’ wages while the Civil Marine Service Act No. 201 of 1975 is silent on this issue. The Committee also recalls that the same requirement is now reflected in Regulation 2.6 and the corresponding Code of the Maritime Labour Convention, 2006 (MLC, 2006), and that therefore the Government would have every interest in aligning its legislation with the provisions of Convention No. 8 in anticipation of the possible ratification of the MLC, 2006. Accordingly, the Committee requests the Government to take all appropriate steps – preferably in the context of an overall revision of the maritime legislation – to ensure that (i) in every case of loss or foundering of any vessel, seafarers employed thereon shall be paid for the days during which they remain unemployed an indemnity at the same rate as the wages payable under their contract although the total indemnity payable to any one seafarer may be limited to two months’ wages; and (ii) seafarers shall have the same remedies for recovering the indemnity against unemployment as they have for recovering arrears of wages earned during their service.