New year, same challenges.
The crew change crisis has not gone away, with charterers’ ‘no crew change’ clauses aggravating the ongoing challenge and further threatening the safety of navigation, says International Maritime Organization (IMO) secretary-general Kitack Lim.
So-called ‘no crew change’ clauses, which are demanded by certain charterers, state that no crew changes can occur while the charterer’s cargo is onboard – hence not allowing the ship to deviate to ports where crew changes can take place.
IMO’s Seafarer Crisis Action Team (SCAT) has been made aware of this development in recent weeks.
In a strong statement issued in December and supported by the International Labour Organization (ILO), Lim called on all charterers to exclude these clauses in charter parties, and also called on shipowners and operators to reject them if they were demanded.
“Such clauses exacerbate the mental and physical fatigue among exhausted seafarers, undermine compliance with the provisions of the Maritime Labour Convention, 2006, and further threaten the safety of navigation,” Lim said.
He added that alternative contractual clauses that allowed for crew changes during the pandemic were available and should be utilised.
As the crew change crisis now enters its tenth month, hundreds of thousands of seafarers remain onboard ships well beyond the expiration of their seafarer employment agreements, some not being paid and all unable to be repatriated.
A similar number remain unable to join ships, and as a result find themselves unable to begin their contracts and earn a living.
As of 18 December, 46 IMO member states and one associate member* designated seafarers as key workers.
This allows them to travel between their country of residence and ships, and to be repatriated at the end of their contracts.
“There have also been some encouraging signs of progress in the application of the industry-developed framework of protocols for ensuring safe crew changes and travel during the pandemic, which were endorsed by the Maritime Safety Committee,” said Lim.
*Member States: Azerbaijan, Bahamas, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Cyprus, Denmark, Dominica, France, Gabon, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Indonesia, Iran (Islamic Republic of), Jamaica, Japan, Kenya, Kiribati, Liberia, Marshall Islands, Moldova, Montenegro, Myanmar, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Panama, Philippines, Republic of Korea, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Thailand, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States, Yemen.
Associate Member: Hong Kong (China).
