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Introduction

  • Chapter
International Maritime Labour Law

Part of the book series: Hamburg Studies on Maritime Affairs ((HAMBURG,volume 34))

Abstract

Maritime labour law is built in a framework of extreme offshoring and imbued by a number of international conventions that seek to level the playing field and avoid social dumping by establishing minimum standards worldwide. The fact that they do not cover all issues and are not applied by all states makes private international law come to the fore as the best set of rules for dealing with private international situations. This book strives to paint the whole picture by addressing, in Chap. 2, the factors leading to the internationalisation of maritime employment and the remedies to the subsequent regulatory gaps that have been put forward by the international community, in particular within the framework of the International Labour Organization. This study shows that public and private international laws go hand in hand to provide a jurisdiction or an applicable law in those cases in which work is performed in a non-sovereignty area, an issue discussed in Chaps. 3 and 4 of this book. It also explains that this coordination is not always possible in light of the principle of proximity and issues such as flags or crews of convenience; thereby, maritime employees’ access to justice in litigation arising out of individual employment contracts cannot rely only on the jurisdiction of the flag state, but a number of criteria have to be provided to this end. By the same token, while the law of the flag can be deemed the law of the habitual place of work, this statement cannot be sustained in the event of work not performed in one and the same vessel or the employment relationship being closer to another country. Finally, Chap. 5 deals with the collective dimension of the employment relationship and, in particular, with trade union activity to the extent that it is essential to improve working and living conditions on board.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    See further Basedow (2013), pp. 82–133.

  2. 2.

    Dealing with the transformation of the concept of state resulting from the increasingly blurred concepts of distance and border, which in turn are the consequence of changes in the concepts of time and space due to innovations in technology; see Hinojosa Martínez (2005), p. 5, and more specifically Michaels (2004), pp. 113–115; de Miguel Asensio (2001), pp. 43–44; Pamboukis (2007), p. 87.

  3. 3.

    See Mankowski (1995), pp. 1–2; Muir-Watt (2011).

  4. 4.

    See Chaumette (2004), pp. 1223–1228.

  5. 5.

    See Muir-Watt (2005), pp. 615–633. Further, Muir-Watt (2004).

  6. 6.

    The difficulties inherent in providing a definition for the concept of flags of convenience are revealed by discussions during the drafting process of Article 5 of the Geneva Convention on the High Seas of 28 April 1958, whose purpose was to establish what is not a flag of convenience, hence the connecting factors that ships must have with the states that grant them nationality. In the end, there was only agreement on one single undetermined factor: the existence of a genuine link between state and ship, which therefore allows states to exercise their jurisdiction over ships. See Meyers (1967), pp. 218–219; Skourtos (1990), pp. 5–11. In addition to the Convention, it is important to mention the report issued in 1970 by the Committee of Inquiry into Shipping, named after its chairman Lord Rochdale, on the following criteria, which may help identify flags of convenience: non-citizens are allowed to own and control vessels, and manpower may be recruited from among non-nationals; access to the registry is easy, and so is transfer from it; taxes on income from shipping are low or non-existent; the country does not have the power to institute national or international regulations over shipowners and does not need the shipping tonnage for its own purposes but is keen to earn the tonnage fees. More recently, see Alderton and Winchester (2002), pp. 35–43.

  7. 7.

    See Chaumette (2001), pp. 70–83.

  8. 8.

    See, among many others, Basedow and Wurmnest (2006), pp. 413–434; Basedow and Wurmnest (2008), pp. 278–295; Sobrino Heredia (2005), pp. 1331–1348.

  9. 9.

    Maritime Labor Convention, 23 February 2006, available at http://www.ilo.org/dyn/normlex/en/f?p=NORMLEXPUB:91:0::NO:91:P91_INSTRUMENT_ID:312331:NO.

  10. 10.

    ILO Convention No. 188, 14 June 2007 concerning work in the fishing sector, available at http://www.ilo.org/dyn/normlex/en/f?p=NORMLEXPUB:12100:0::NO:12100:P12100_INSTRUMENT_ID:312333:NO.

  11. 11.

    Fish stocks are a limited natural resource, and the planning of their exploitation is the core concept handled by the sector with the participation of the FAO and its Fishing Committee. See Beslier (2010), pp. 47–55.

  12. 12.

    See Rapport final, Commission paritaire maritime (29e session), Geneva, 22–26 January 2001, JMC/29/2001/14, p. 28. http://www.ilo.org/public/english/dialogue/sector/techmeet/jmc01/jmcfr.pdf. Accessed 2 December 2009.

  13. 13.

    Port state jurisdiction also plays a key role in the fishing sector with a view to avoiding over-exploitation of migratory species. See further Franckx (2010), pp. 57–79; Gautier (2010), pp. 81–96.

  14. 14.

    UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, concluded at Montego Bay, 10 December 1982, 1833 UNTS 3.

  15. 15.

    OJ No. L 012, 16.1.2001.

  16. 16.

    OJ No. L 351, 20.12.2012.

  17. 17.

    Convention on jurisdiction and the recognition and enforcement of judgments in civil and commercial matters, held at Lugano on 30 October 2007 (OJ No. 147, 10.6.2009).

  18. 18.

    International Convention relating to the arrest of seagoing ships concluded in Brussels on 10 May 1952, 439 UNTS 193, and International Convention relating to the arrest of seagoing ships concluded in Geneva on 12 March 1999, UN/IMO Doc A/CONF.188/6.

  19. 19.

    In some countries like Tunisia, Ukraine, China and Panama, a choice of law is not allowed on the ground of worker protection. See Articles 67 of the Tunisian Code on Private international law issued by Law 98-97, 27 November 1998; 52 of the Ukrainian Law of 23 June 2005, No. 2709-IV on Private international law; 43 of the Law of the People’s Republic of China on the Application of Law for Foreign-related Civil Relationships of 28 October 2010, and 94 of the Panama Private International Law Code, issued by Law of 8 May 2014 (Gaceta Oficial Digital No 27530, 8.5.2014). The approach is different in Switzerland, where choice of law is allowed but is limited to the selection of one of the laws indicated by § 121 Internationales Privatrechtsgesetz, 18 December 1987 (AS 1988 1776). The EU and other countries mentioned in the text allow the choice of any law provided that it is more favourable to the worker than the law otherwise applicable, as discussed in Chap. 4.

  20. 20.

    OJ No. L 177, 4.7.2008.

  21. 21.

    Article 43 of the Law of the People’s Republic of China on the Application of Law for Foreign-related Civil Relationships.

  22. 22.

    Article 12 of the Japanese Act on the Application of Laws, enacted by law No. 87, 21 June 2006.

  23. 23.

    Article 94 of the Panamanian Private International Law Code.

  24. 24.

    Article 67 of the Tunisian Private International Law Code.

  25. 25.

    Article 27 of the Turkish Act on Private international and procedural law No. 5718, 27 November 2007 (as translated by Wilske S and Esin I).

  26. 26.

    Article 28 of the South Korean Act on Private International Law adopted in 2001, enacted by law No. 6465, 7 April 2001.

  27. 27.

    § 121 Internationales Privatrechtsgesetz.

  28. 28.

    Article 52 of the Ukrainian Law on Private International Law specifically mentions the application of the law of the country of the flag’s vessel where the employee works by default of choice of law or a law more closely related. However, Article 54 thereof provides for a number of unilateral rules that almost displace Article 52.

  29. 29.

    With respect to the French market, see Audit (1986), pp. 33–40.

  30. 30.

    And The application of the law of the flag can respond to protective purposes as well. A good example of this is provided by STSJ Andalucía, 10.12.1993, with comments by Pérez Martín (1996), pp. 386–389, although applying Spanish labour law as loi de aplication immediate to the employment relationships between a Spanish shipowner and Moroccan workers providing services on board a Spanish ship in Moroccan waters; contracts had been entered into in Morocco.

  31. 31.

    OJ No. L 199 of 31.7.2007.

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  1. Departamento de Derecho Común, University of Santiago de Compostela, Santiago de Compostela, Spain

    Laura Carballo Piñeiro

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Piñeiro, L.C. (2015). Introduction. In: International Maritime Labour Law. Hamburg Studies on Maritime Affairs, vol 34. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-47032-9_1

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