This new International Labour Organization (ILO) convention consolidates and updates more than 68 international labour standards in the maritime sector. It sets minimum global standards for seafarers living and working conditions. It also reflects the valuable contribution of the ILO to global employment standards

The ratification of the Maritime Labour Convention has been a lengthy process in the UK that involved a number of Government departments including alongside extensive contributions from the UK Chamber of Shipping, Nautilus International, the RMT union and other stakeholders.

The UK has 1,383 vessels on its register totalling 16.57 million gross tonnage. There are approximately 89,000 seafarers working on UK flagged ships and more than 24,100 UK nationals work as seafarers.

The UK's adoption has been extended to include the Isle of Man and Gibraltar.

According to the ILO Japan is the world's second largest ship-owning country and among the top-ten flags of registration based on registered tonnage.

Japan is also an important country for port State control inspection of conditions on foreign flag ships and hosts the Secretariat of the Tokyo Memorandum of Understanding on Port State Control which is one of the most active regional port State control organizations bringing together 18 maritime authorities of the Asia-Pacific region.

The Maritime Labour Convention comes into force on 20 August for the first 30 countries who ratified the Convention.

Further information on the Maritime Labour Convention can be found on the ILO website.