Port State Control – CIC 2024 on crew wages and seafarers’ employment agreements under the MLC

This year’s Concentrated Inspection Campaign (CIC), which runs from 1 September to 30 November 2024, prioritizes the fundamental rights of seafarers on board ships and will be conducted on the topic of crew wages and Employment Agreements of Seafarers (SEAs) under the MLC. Read more about CIC in this news.

CIC – Crew Wages and Seafarers’ Employment Agreements under the MLC

Each year, PSC regimes identify a specific focus area to be checked during regular inspections. For the current year, the Paris and Tokyo MoUs agreed to run a CIC on the subject of crew wages and Seafarers’ Employment Agreements under the MLC. It is expected that the financial security requirements under the 2014 amendments to the MLC will also be covered by this CIC.

Most PSC MoUs have confirmed their participation in this year’s CIC. It will be carried out between 1 September and 30 November and will be covered by an additional questionnaire during routine inspections of the PSC.

This additional questionnaire is usually published in early August. After the final questionnaire is published, DNV will issue a supplementary bulletin.

In addition, DNV is offering a webinar on August 20, 2024, during which our experts will provide background information on the additional questionnaire and you will have the opportunity to ask questions. Registration is now open here.

Our internal statistics show that, across three different topics, the majority of findings in this area match the following examples:

wages

• Wages are not paid every month
• There are no details about the salaries paid to VSM
• Wages paid not in accordance with the VSM or Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA)
• No monthly bills have been issued to seafarers
• Deduction for wages not in accordance with MLC

Seafarers’ Employment Agreements (SEAs)

• The original SEA is not available to the mariner
• SEA is not available in English
• The VSM has expired or been extended without the seafarer’s consent
• Changes to the VSM have not been signed by the seafarer
• VSM does not comply with MLC requirements
• The seafarer is in a higher or different position as agreed in the VSM
• There is no information available about the employment agreement at VSM

Financial security changes 2014

• Financial assurance certificates in case of repatriation or certificates in case of death and long-term disability compensation are not available on board.
• Certificates are not displayed on board

It should be noted that the CIC is part of regular PSC inspections and the attending PSC officer may extend the inspection to other areas of the ship or crew related matters such as time off records or recognition. Additionally, certain non-preventable MLC-related deficiencies are likely to trigger an ISM deficiency (PSC Code 15150), even as the sole reason for detention.

Management systems and PSC

Due to additional international requirements, a PSC inspection will not only focus on technical issues, but will also take a more systematic approach to assess the implementation of the ship’s management system. Evidence of improvement needs can be technical issues (eg malfunctions due to low maintenance) as well as operational issues (eg crew familiarization/training or unawareness of malfunctions). Over the past few years, ISM deficiencies have consistently ranked as the most common detention issue during ship detention.

Owners should prioritize well-implemented management systems for ISM, ISPS and MLC. These aim to maintain awareness of the vessel’s status and immediately implement effective mitigation actions, if necessary, ideally ensuring compliance at all times.

DNV recommends that companies perform root cause analyses, including corrective and preventive actions, for individual PSC deficiencies. These data, statistics, and the resulting improvement needs should be included in annual management reviews to assess effectiveness.

DNV supports your improvement efforts during annual DOC audits.

In addition, DNV provides various information on our PSC website to support you during your day-to-day business, such as PSC Planner. From late August to December, the PSC Planner will also include the questionnaire for this CIC for easy reference and preparation by the ship’s crew and management.

DNV would like to remind customers that in addition to this CIC, other unplanned local focus inspection campaigns may be carried out at the same time. For campaigns still ongoing in China or the US, please refer to our news from May 28, 2024.
Source: DNV, https://www.dnv.com/news/port-state-control-cic-2024-on-crew-wages-and-seafarer-employment-agreements-under-mlc/?utm_campaign=MA_24Q3_TRN_No_17_EXT_Port%20St %20Control%20%C3%A2%C2%80%C2%93%20CIC%202024%20under%20MLC&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Eloqua