Purpose of this report

The Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) is pleased to present the 2022 Australian Maritime Labour Convention, 2006 (MLC) annual report.  

Every year AMSA undertakes a range of planned and responsive activities to keep people safe and to protect the marine environment which is outlined in the National Compliance Plan.  

This report aims to present findings on key MLC data in Australian waters. It presents an analysis of MLC complaints, compliance and follow-up actions undertaken by AMSA in Australia for 2022. The information in this report will be used to inform the 2023-2024 National Compliance Plan.

Application of the MLC 

The MLC applies to all commercial vessels¹ whether publicly or privately owned. It does not apply to fishing vessels, vessels of traditional build (such as dhows and junks), warships or naval auxiliaries or vessels not ordinarily engaged in commercial activities. 

A list of the 101 member states that have ratified the convention after 20 August 2013 is available on the International Labour Organisation (ILO) website.

Australia’s obligation under the MLC

In Australia, the MLC is implemented primarily through the Navigation Act 2012² and associated delegated legislation such as Marine Order 11 (Living and working conditions on vessels) 2015. 

AMSA verifies compliance with the MLC by:

• Responding to all MLC complaints from seafarers engaged on vessels in, or coming into, Australian ports.
• Conducting port and flag State control inspections of vessels coming into Australian ports.
• Requiring Regulated Australian Vessels to be certified in accordance with the MLC, as given effect by Marine Order 11 (Living and working conditions on vessels) 2015.
• Taking a leading role in supporting seafarer welfare through the Australian Seafarers’ Welfare Council.

AMSA continues to do its part to ensure seafarers on vessels visiting Australian ports are being afforded the requirements under the MLC.

The Australian Seafarers’ Welfare Council

The MLC requires signatory countries to establish welfare boards at the port, regional and national level to support seafarer welfare. In Australia, the Australian Seafarers’ Welfare Council (ASWC) was established to ensure there is a continuous national approach in the provision of welfare services.

ASWC aims to promote seafarer welfare issues and the services available in Australian ports to support and protect seafarers.

The ASWC meets on a quarterly basis and AMSA plays a leadership (chairperson and secretariat) role in the work that ASWC aims to achieve, namely to:

• Provide leadership in the implementation of Australia’s obligations to seafarers under the MLC
• Assist in the establishment of a national network of seafarer support arrangements
• Promote, encourage and support the delivery of seafarer welfare services at Australian ports

These aims are encompassed by ASWC’s strategic goals and progressed against these goals for 2022 as listed in Table 1 below. 

Seafarer welfare campaigns and publications

Every year AMSA undertakes a range of planned compliance and educational activities outlined in the National Compliance Plan. As part of the 2022-2023 National Compliance Plan, AMSA continues to ensure seafarers on vessels visiting Australian ports were, and are, being afforded the requirements under the MLC.

Guidance and publications

A Marine Notice emphasising the requirement for shipowners and operators to provide shore leave for seafarers visiting Australian ports has been published. AMSA has also published  guidance on the AMSA website on the maximum continuous period a seafarer can serve on board a vessel without taking leave.

AMSA continues to provide information and guidance on mental health which can be assessed at Mental health guidance for seafarers during COVID-19 (amsa.gov.au). 

An article published by SAFETY4SEA following an exclusive interview with AMSA’s CEO Mick Kinley, also emphasises the importance of ensuring seafarer welfare is considered a priority by shipping companies and flag States. In the absence of welfare leadership, seafarers continue to be heavily reliant on charity-based seafarer welfare providers to support them, filling the gap of what the company/employer’s responsibility should be in this area.

International campaign to make reporting of fatalities at sea mandatory

As part of our continued commitment to seafarer welfare AMSA successfully campaigned for mandatory reporting of all seafarer deaths, including suicides and person-overboard, at the Maritime Labor Convention International Labor Organization Special Tripartite Committee* (STC) meeting in early 2022. Amendments will be made to the Maritime Labor Convention, 2006 (MLC) which will broadly require:

• All seafarer deaths to be adequately investigated and recorded by flag States (referred to as ‘competent authorities’ in the MLC) and reported on an annual basis to the ILO for publication in a de-identified global deaths at sea register.
• Fatality data to include a classification for death, such as person-overboard or suicide, vessel type, vessel size, location of fatality, seafarer gender and rank.

This is a significant change. Until now flag States were only required to report operational-related fatalities, while those caused by seafarers falling overboard, committing suicide, natural causes or medical events went unreported to the ILO. To ensure consistency across global reporting, a detailed taxonomy for fatality data will be developed by the International Labor Office in consultation with STC officers, and promoted before the mandate enters into force via the MLC in 2024. A consistent dataset will allow the global maritime community to identify trends, particularly around those factors which impact the mental health and wellbeing of seafarers, and effectively address these with positive interventions. This also sets a significant precedent as the first time that mandatory reporting will be received by the ILO on deaths in any sector in the world.

Footnotes

¹ Note. The MLC does not apply to domestic commercial vessels as are subject to other provisions 

² The requirements of the MLC are met through various legislative instruments not limited to the Navigation Act.

MLC complaints received

The MLC requires all vessels to have an onboard complaints procedure that provides seafarers with the opportunity to make complaints without concern or repercussion. The MLC also has provisions which gives rights to seafarers to make a complaint to the relevant flag or port State authorities when they believe that their living and/or working conditions on board are below standard.

In 2022, AMSA received 261 complaints³ representing a 6.8 per cent decrease on the number received in 2021 (280) which has continued to decline from the peak of 320 complaints received in 2020. The reduced frequency of complaints is indicative of industry and operators continued adjustment following the COVID-19 pandemic peak, but is still higher than pre-Covid levels.

Follow up to complaints received

When complaints are received by AMSA, all necessary actions are taken to ensure the confidentiality of the seafarer making the complaint. Where appropriate, AMSA encourages resolution of complaints at shipboard level, and if this is not possible, at the flag State level. If a complaint can’t be resolved, AMSA will follow-up and may issue deficiencies or detain vessels. 

AMSA has a zero-tolerance approach to breaches under the MLC and has issued refusal of access direction notices to vessels from Australian ports for systemic non-compliance with the MLC (Refusal of access list and letters of warning list). Vessels that are not operated and managed to meet applicable standards, and relevant Australian laws, pose an increased risk to seafarers, other vessels and the marine environment. Since 2018, a total of 16 vessels have been issued with a direction notice refusing them access to Australian ports.  Of these 16 vessels, 13 were banned for serious breaches of the MLC primarily relating to underpayment of wages, decent working and living conditions and inadequate provisions.

An estimated amount of AUD $313, 612 in wages was recovered from vessels in 2022. In 2022, two vessels were banned from Australian ports due to MLC breaches. The reasons for the bans included underpayment of wages and inadequate provisions. The vessels were banned for a period of three to six months. 

Breakdown of complaints by vessel type

In 2022, 62.5 per cent of complaints received were from seafarers engaged on bulk carriers. This is a 6.1 per cent reduction from the 2021 complaints. One of the factors that likely influenced the reduction is the decrease in bulk carrier arrivals in Australia (2.48 per cent less in comparison to 2021).

Table 2 – Breakdown of complaints by vessel type 2018-2022

Breakdown of complaints by State

Figure 4 shows complains received broken down by the Australian state or territory in which the vessel arrived in 2022. Western Australia (28.6 per cent) and Queensland (22.9 per cent) represented the highest number of complaints.  To note is that Western Australia (46.9 percent) and Queensland (26.2 percent) continue to represent the majority of bulk carrier vessel arrivals in Australia in 2022. 

Complaints received by MLC titles

The main body of the MLC (the regulations and the code) is grouped into five main titles
with data coded accordingly.

Title 1 – Minimum requirements for seafarers to work on vessels
Title 2 – Conditions of employment
Title 3 – Accommodation, recreational facilities, food and catering
Title 4 – Health Protection, medical care, welfare, and social security protection (including bullying and harassment)
Title 5 – Compliance and enforcement

Title 2 of the MLC - Conditions of employment continues to make up the majority (56.9 per cent) of MLC complaints received. This includes seafarer employment agreements (SEAs), wages, hours of work and rest, entitlement to leave, repatriation, and crewing levels. This is followed by title 4 - Health Protection, medical care, welfare, and social security protection (including bullying and harassment) in which an increasing trend in complaints over the years is evident from the data. 

Table 3 – MLC complaints breakdown by title 2018-2022

Although not as significant as during Covid, the overall number of complaints, and the number of issues reported in the complaints remains significantly higher than the numbers reported pre-Covid in 2019. Complaints related to Title 4 increased from 85 (19.67 per cent of total complaints) in 2021 to 100 (24.3 per cent of total complaints) in 2022. The number of complaints continue to be a concerning issue and AMSA will continue to monitor these trends and ensure compliance with MLC is upheld by vessels coming into Australian waters.

Conditions of employment (Title 2) 

Table 4 – Title 2 complaints for 2018-2022

The proportion of Title 2 complaints in relation to all other complaints decreased slightly from 60.1 per cent in 2021 to 56.9 per cent in 2022, although the numbers of complaints under each Title are still high when compared to pre-Covid levels. 

Title 2 complaints received regarding seafarer employment agreements decreased by 50.6 per cent from 83 in 2021 to 41 in 2022. Similarly, repatriation-related Title 2 complaints decreased by 46.2 per cent from 104 in 2021 to 56 in 2022 (Figure 5). This is an indication that AMSA’s response to repatriation complaints is working, and industry and operators are better equipped to manage the repatriation of seafarers.

Health protection, medical care, welfare, social security protection (Title 4) 

Table 5 – Title 4 complaints for 2018-2022

In 2022 a total of 72 complaints were received regarding concerns with health and safety protection and accident protection onboard. This represents an increase of 33.3 per cent on the number reported in 2021.

Breakdown of complaints by outcome

AMSA endeavours to follow-up all MLC complaints—and has done so—except in cases where the vessel was out of area and has not arrived in Australia and therefore beyond the regulatory oversight of AMSA. In those situations, AMSA refer the complaint to the flag State of the vessel and/or the next port State. AMSA may also place alerts on the vessel to ensure the complaint is followed-up when it next arrives in Australia. In all cases we try to ensure that the confidentiality of the complainant is maintained. Where AMSA refers information to the flag State or next port State, we expect that similar steps are taken to ensure the confidentiality of the complainant.

Figure 7 provides a breakdown of the follow up actions undertaken showing that 30.7 per cent of complaints received are unsubstantiated.

Breakdown of complaints received by flag State

Figure 8 shows the distribution of complaints received from foreign flagged vessels by flag State for 2022. Figure 9 shows the distribution of complaints when the number of port arrivals is taken into consideration6. 

The flag States in Figure 8 and 9 accounted for 95.2 per cent of foreign flagged port arrivals in Australia and represented 92.0 per cent of complaints received from foreign flagged vessels in 2022.

Source of complaints 

The number of complaints originating directly from seafarers has increased across the years, from 75 in 2018 to 159 in 2022 representing an increase of 52.8 percent. 

Table 6 – Source of complaints 2018-2022

This is likely an indication of the increased awareness of seafarers’ rights under the MLC and the reputation Australia has regarding seafarer welfare. Seafarers are therefore more confident that their concerns are taken seriously, actioned and treated confidentially when in Australia. 

Footnotes

³ 2022 data includes ten complaints received from nine regulated Australian vessels (RAV). The complaints received were under MLC Title 2: Conditions of employment and MLC Title 4: Health protection, medical care, welfare, social security protection and MLC Title 5: Compliance and enforcement. One complaint resulted in a deficiency being issued for Title 4.

⁴ Two separate vessels had two instances where a complaint was made and deficiencies were issued.

⁵ Seven vessels were detained during a follow-up inspection for deficiencies other than MLC.

⁶ Normalising the data by port arrivals provides for a better reflection of the complaint rate of vessels from different flag States.

Serious injuries (2020-2022)

Figure 10 shows the number of serious injuries to seafarers reported to AMSA between 2020 and 2022.

Table 7 shows the number of serious injuries reported by Australian-flagged vessels and foreign-flagged vessels. It should be noted that Australian-flagged vessels report to AMSA regardless of their geographical location. Foreign-flagged vessels are only required to report injuries that occur in Australian waters.

Fatalities (2018-2022)

AMSA categorises all deaths at sea according to the taxonomy⁸ below:

• Operational
• Illness/disease
• Person overboard (presumed deceased)
• Suicide
• Other

The total number of seafarer fatalities reported to AMSA from 2018 to 2022 includes fatalities which occurred within the Australian Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ)⁹ and fatalities which occurred outside of the Australian EEZ but were still reported to AMSA.

Fatality rate

In 2022, the fatality rate (the number of fatalities per 100,000 seafarers¹⁰) for foreign flagged vessels in Australia’s Exclusive Economic Zone was 2.2. This is lower than the five-year average fatality rate of 2.7 per 100,000 seafarers as per Table 8.  This fatality rate is slightly higher than the Australian national fatality five-year average rate of 1.4. 

Also noted by SafeWork Australia (Safe Work Australia Work-related, traumatic injury fatalities Australia 2021 Report) fatality rates are sensitive to the number of people employed in the industry and this may be particularly evident with small variation in the number of fatalities for smaller industries that employ fewer employees¹¹. Therefore, the actual number of fatalities needs to be considered when interpreting the fatality rates for this data.

Fatalities by illness/disease

There has been a decrease in fatalities by illness/disease reported in 2022 when compared to 2020 and 2021 data. The higher numbers reported for 2020 and 2021 may have been exacerbated by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. 

Illness/disease make up the majority of reported fatalities. However, it is difficult to ascertain whether this is consistent with global trends due to the lack of data being collated and made available by flag States. In 2022, AMSA submitted a proposal to mandate the requirement to report all fatalities at sea to the International Labour Organization at the 4th meeting of the MLC Special Tripartite Committee (STC). The STC agreed to the proposal for deaths of seafarers on board vessels to be reported annually to the International Labour Organization (ILO) and for the relevant data to be published in a global register. These amendments will enter into force in 2024.

Footnotes

⁷ AMSA classifies serious injuries to include injuries that require emergency treatment, in most cases leading to an emergency medivac from the vessel and/or hospitalisation.

⁸ Refer to the glossary of this report.

⁹ The Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) is an area beyond and adjacent to the territorial sea. The outer limit of the exclusive economic zone cannot exceed 200M from the baseline from which the breadth of the territorial sea is measured. The Australian EEZ is defined in the Seas and Submerged Lands Act 1973 ('the SSL Act').

¹⁰ Based on a calculated approximation of 90,000 seafarers engaged on foreign flagged vessels in Australian waters in 2022.

¹¹ Safe Work Australia, Work-related, traumatic injury fatalities Australia 2021

2022 – AG NEPTUNE

In June 2022 AMSA received a complaint regarding underpayment of wages and seafarers who had been onboard for over 11 months. AMSA attended the vessel and found insufficient food and drinking water. Seafarers were not paid at regular monthly intervals in accordance with their Seafarer Employment Agreement (SEA) and there were two seafarers with expired SEAs, having been onboard for more than 11 months. There was also evidence that a seafarer failed to receive adequate medical attention. The vessel was detained on 16 June 2022. Upon release from detention the vessel was issued a refusal of access direction notice for 180 days.

2022 – Nord Jewel 

In September 2022 AMSA received a complaint from seafarers that they were refused shore leave for 6 months. AMSA found evidence to substantiate the complaint and an MLC deficiency was issued. The company was not allowing shore leave regardless of whether there was a negative COVID-19 test. Consequently, the company updated and revised its ‘Guidance on Shore Leave’ policy fleetwide.

2022 – Costanza 

In November 2022 AMSA received a complaint that seafarers had not been paid since July 2022. AMSA inspected the vessel and found that wages between August and October had not been paid in full with only around 50 per cent of seafarer’s wages having been paid. The Seafarers’ Employment Agreements (SEAs) did not reference the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA in place and the wages were not in accordance with the CBA. Total amount owing was an estimated AUD$108,000. The vessel was detained on 9 November 2022. 

On 11 November, the payment for outstanding wages was received onboard and the SEAs were revised in accordance with the CBA Following the release from detention, the vessel was issued a refusal of access direction (banned) from Australian ports for 90 days. 

Port and flag State control (PSC and FSC) are conducted in accordance with the International Maritime Organization’s (IMO) requirements. Primarily, compliance activities may involve issuing deficiencies or a detention (a prohibition on the vessel being allowed to depart the port). 
MLC compliance is one of the core elements of all PSC and FSC inspections. When investigating a MLC complaint, AMSA may attend onboard to conduct a MLC inspection. Where this inspection identifies deficiencies, AMSA will then undertake a port or flag State control inspection, and this will likely include a more detailed inspection.

Every year AMSA publishes the Annual Inspections Report (Port State control (amsa.gov.au))  summarising all the inspection activities of AMSA. 

Figure 14 shows the number of MLC deficiencies issued following PSC inspections. Since 2020 there has been an increase in the number of MLC deficiencies.

In 2022, AMSA conducted a total of 2405 PSC inspections resulting in 145 detentions.

In 2022 12 vessels were detained due to serious breaches on the MLC following a PSC inspection. Overall, the number of detentions has remained stable over the past few years (Figure 15). AMSA continues to work proactively and collaboratively with industry in its dealings with MLC related deficiencies. 

Further information on the MLC deficiencies and rate of MLC deficiencies by vessel type is available in the 2022 Inspection Annual report.

PSC deficiency data related to MLC issues

Figure 18 shows the number of PSC MLC deficiencies issued by MLC title in 2022, originating from a more detailed inspection or a PSC inspection. 

Regulation 4.3, dealing with health and safety protection and accident prevention, is the major deficiency item identified and is reflected in the number of Title 4 deficiencies below. While most complaints were related to Title 2 – Conditions of employment (as seen in Table 3), PSC MLC deficiency data has identified that health and safety protection which includes bullying and harassment) is the most frequently recorded MLC deficiency on foreign-flagged vessels.

Title 1 – Minimum requirements for seafarers to work on vessels
Title 2 – Conditions of employment
Title 3 – Accommodation, recreational facilities, food and catering
Title 4 – Health protection, medical care, welfare and social security protection (including bullying and harassment)
Title 5 – Compliance and enforcement 

FSC deficiency data related to MLC issues

In 2022, a total of 95 initial FSC inspections were carried out. 29 MLC deficiencies were issued across a total of 18 regulated Australian vessels (13 vessels with one deficiency, three vessels with two deficiencies and two vessels with more than two deficiencies).

Figure 19 shows a breakdown of MLC deficiencies by MLC Title issued during FSC inspections on regulated Australian vessels with Title 4 - Health Protection, medical care, welfare and social security protection representing the highest number.

Fatality type 

Footnotes

¹² Refer to the ILO list of occupational diseases (revised 2010)

¹³ Use of term injury rather than harm as this is consistent with ILO definition of occupational injury (which includes fatal injuries).