BY Liam Kerr: Mr Kerr is an employment law specialist with CMS Cameron McKenna
The Maritime Labour Convention (MLC) is to become UK law on August 20 and will have a significant impact on worldwide shipping and its workforce.
Offshore oil and gas industry employers should be prepared, so they remain on right side of the law.
The MLC’s core aims are to provide a globally applicable standard of minimum working conditions for seafarers.
All ship owners will need to be aware of and ensure compliance with these terms, wherever they sail.
Fundamentally, the key aspects are the minimum work arrangements for seafarers. These include decent working and living conditions, regular wage payment and access to prompt medical care on board and in port.
Working time must not exceed 14 hours in a 24-hour period and 72 hours in any seven-day period. Additionally, seafarers will be entitled to accrue annual leave of 2.5 days a month.
So how will this apply to the oil and gas industry?
The Maritime and Coastguard Agency is responsible for the MLC’s implementation and it intends to include floating production storage and offloading vessels (FPSOs) and mobile offshore drilling units (Modus) in its application.
Broadly, when mobile infrastructure is attached to the seabed or to a subsea structure it is classed as an installation and the Health and Safety Executive regime applies.
When infrastructure is disconnected and repositioning, the new MLC regulations will apply.
Another issue for the oil and gas industry is who bears the obligations for compliance; these fall on the ship owners, but it may not be clear who that is.
The most prudent advice for rig and ship owners can be broken down into stages. First they need to establish whether those working on their ships, vessels or installations are “seafarers” and therefore afforded all the rights and protections. Thereafter, employment contracts (and in some cases drilling or operation contracts) will need to be reviewed for compliance with the MLC provisions.
The health and safety of seafarers is the paramount concern to all parties. It is intended the new MLC legislation will create uniformity across the marine and offshore sectors with the welfare of the workforce at its heart.