Owners, unions eye model crew concept for FOC ships

A negotiating forum of ship owners and unions is preparing to adopt a model total crew cost (TCC) agreement acceptable to both employers and seafarers for crews working on ships flying flags of convenience (FOC).

Manning sources said the agreement between the International Transport Workers Federation (ITF) and International Maritime Employers' Committee (IMEC) joint negotiating forum can be subject to further negotiation at national level and will apply to IMEC members wishing to apply for a 'blue certificate.' The blue certificate is issued once owners have complied with certain ITF requirements for the crews collective agreement on a particular ship.

The model accord is expected to remove problems IMEC members face when presented with the current ITF uniform TCC as the basis for negotiations with the transport federation on FOC ships.

The two sides aim to have the model agreement in place by January 2001, when the ITF minimum-wage benchmark for an able seaman will rise from $1,200 to $1,400 a month.

Steve Cotton of the ITF special seafarers department said the forum is having a difficult job at reaching a common arrangement with regard to the model. The negotiating forum will meet on March 21 in London to provide initial inputs for the TCC. It will be followed with another meeting in Valencia, Spain in April.

In the Philippines, majority of the agencies belonging to FAME are currently having TCC agreement with the ITF through its local affiliates, the Associated Marine Officers' and Seamen's of the Philippines and the Philippine Seamen's Union. The 92-FAME group alone comprise 54 agencies with TCC agreement involving at least 10,000 Filipino seafarers.

FAME president Vicente Aldense, who also sits as president of the Philippine Maritine Employers' Committee (PMEC), says one probable change expected in adopting the model is in the area of adjudication.

Partiality of Philippine law with the seaman when it comes to settlement of claims is understood to be one of the reasons in the predicted changes to the model agreement. Though he sees no further alteration in wage scales and hours of work.