MLC | ITF Inspectorate | Seafarers Rights International

Key Points

01

The ITF Inspectorate is a network of more than 140 trade union officials based in over 120 ports in over 50 countries worldwide. They are tasked:

“to ensure that seafarers have decent pay, working conditions and living conditions, and to police ITF agreements on board to ensure compliance”.

02

The ITF Inspectors are reported to have carried out over 90,000 ship inspections between 2013 and 2023. An average of 77.5% of ships inspected were reported to have labour related problems on board, in particular breach of contract, agreement, owed wages, international standards non-compliance and medical issues.

03

The ITF Inspectorate is reported to have recovered over USD440 million in seafarers’ owed wages between 2013 and the end of 2023.

04

Ten flags that had most backpay collected on their ships by the ITF inspectors in 2023.05

The ITF Inspectorate conducted a concentrated inspection campaign on the MLC (MLC CIC) during November 2022.

ITF Inspectorate MLC CIC activity (green areas)

06

During the MLC CIC, there were:

577 inspections conducted
47 different flags
139 ports
44 countries

07

MLC CIC results were reported as follows::

Total of 1512 MLC deficiencies
78.3% of ships inspected had one or more MLC deficiency
Average MLC deficiency per ship was 2.62

08

There were some high quality ships not only without any MLC deficiencies but also with standards that were higher than the minimum standards contained in the MLC.

Top deficiencies

Deficiencies by flag

During the MLC CIC, the ITF Inspectorate reported the following findings regarding flags that had three or more ships inspected:

Note: This information may be interpreted in accordance with the number of ships registered with each flag in 2022 as well as the number of ships inspected in the relevant year by the ITF Inspectors.