16 Maritime labour standards
| (a)
(27630)
10901/06
COM(06) 287
(b)
(27623)
10900/06
COM(06) 288
|
Commission Communication under Article 138(2)EC on the strengthening of maritime labour standards
Draft Council Decision on authorising Member States to ratify, in the interests of the European Community, the 2006 Consolidated Maritime Labour Convention of the International Labour Organization
|
| Legal base | (a) —
(b) Articles 42, 300(2) and 300(3)EC; co-decision; QMV
|
| Department | Transport |
| Basis of consideration | Minister's letter of 4 December 2006
|
| Previous Committee Report | HC34-xxxvi (2005-06) para 10, (19 July 2006)
|
| To be discussed in Council | 11-12 December 2006
|
| Committee's assessment | Legally and politically important
|
| Committee's decision | Cleared
|
Background
16.1 At its 94th (Maritime) Session in Geneva in February
of this year the International Labour Organization (ILO) adopted
a maritime labour Convention consolidating the standards of existing
international maritime labour conventions and recommendations,
as well as fundamental principles found in international labour
Conventions, dating back to the 1920s.
16.2 The Convention ensures the right of all seafarers to decent
employment, including the right to a safe and secure workplace,
fair terms of employment, decent working and living conditions
on-board ship and to health protection, medical care and welfare
measures as well as the right to freedom of association and effective
recognition of the right to collective bargaining, and the elimination
of forced and compulsory labour, child labour and discrimination.
The Convention is intended to replace most ILO measures on maritime
labour, and will apply in relation to crews of vessels with a
displacement of more than 500 tonnes which are engaged in international
voyages or which sail between foreign ports.
16.3 We considered the Commission Communication (document (a))
and the draft Council Decision (document (b)) on 19 July 2006.
We noted that the Communication dealt with the implementation
of the ILO Convention at Community and national level. Our particular
concern was with the draft Council Decision which authorised the
Member States to ratify the ILO Convention and instructed them
to do so by 31 December 2008.
16.4 We shared the Minister's concern that the draft Council Decision
did not adequately distinguish between those areas (such as the
coordination of social security systems under Regulation 883/2004/EC
in relation to seafarers resident within the EC/European Economic
Area) which fell within exclusive Community competence and those
where competence was shared or rested with the Member States.
We took particular note of the Minister's remark that should Member
States agree to an EC measure governing areas of competence currently
residing with the individual Member States, such matters would
subsequently become part of the acquis communautaire and
that such a development could set a precedent for future ILO instruments,
including those unrelated to the maritime sector. We asked the
Minister if the draft Council Decision could be drafted more clearly
so as to distinguish more clearly the fields in which competence
is shared from those where it is exclusive.
The Minister's reply
16.5 The Minister of State for Transport (Dr Stephen Ladyman)
replies to these concerns in his letter of 4 December 2006. The
Minister welcomes the views we expressed on 19 July and states
that as the proposal stood at that time, the Government could
not support the draft Council Decision, even though it intended
to ratify the ILO Convention. The Minister explains that the Government,
along with other Member States, was concerned that the Decision
could have an unintended side-effect of causing competence to
be ceded by the Member States in areas where competence is currently
mixed or rests exclusively with the Member States.
16.6 The Minister further explains that the Government has since
been pursuing a revised text which clarifies the competence issue.
The revised text will be considered by the Council on 11-12 December
2006, when the Presidency hopes to reach a general approach on
the proposal. The Minister adds that Article 1 of the draft Decision
has been amended so that it is now explicit that the Decision
authorises Member States to ratify the Convention only "for
the parts falling under Community competence". The Minister
states that this provision means that the Decision will not confer
on the Community any additional competence in relation to the
fields covered by the ILO Convention.
16.7 The Minister also draws our attention to the revised version
of Article 2 which requires Member States to "make efforts"
to deposit their instruments of ratification with the ILO "as
soon as possible, preferably before 31 December 2010". The
Minister comments that the amendment is greatly preferable to
the original text which would have compelled Member States to
ratify by 31 December 2008. The Minister adds that the Government
and a majority of the Member States support the new text of the
Decision, which concedes no existing Member State competence to
the Community.
Conclusion
16.8 We thank the Minister for his letter. In the light of
the explanations the Minister has provided, we are satisfied that
the revised text does make an adequate distinction between Member
State and Community competence, and does not confer any additional
competence on the Community.
16.9 We are therefore content to clear document (b) from scrutiny.
We are also content to clear document (a) from scrutiny, since
it merely discusses the possibility of measures to implement the
ILO Convention and any such measures will be subject to scrutiny
in the normal way.
| 
