ILO to give seafarers monthly pay raise in 2019

Dec 3, 2018 by Triton Staff

A subcommittee of the International Labor Organization will recommend that the minimum monthly basic wage of able seafarers raise from $614 to $618 as of July 1, 2019.

The ILO’s Joint Maritime Commission has also scheduled further monthly increases to $625 on Jan. 1, 2020, and to $641 on Jan. 1, 2021, representing an overall increase of 4.5 percent in mariner wages, according to the ILO.

The Maritime Labour Convention, known as the “seafarers’ bill of rights,” provides that the basic pay or wages of an able seafarer for a calendar month of service should be no less than the amount periodically set by the JMC or another body authorized by the governing body of the ILO.

A resolution concerning the minimum monthly basic pay, as adopted by the commission and which sets out the new wage figures, will be submitted to the ILO governing body in early 2019.

The ILO was created in 1919 as part of the Treaty of Versailles to promote workers’ rights, decent employment opportunities and international dialogue on work-related issues.

The Joint Maritime Commission, which comprises shipowner and seafarer representatives from across the globe, dates back to 1920 and is the only permanent two-party standing body of the ILO.

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