As crisis boosts the industry:
ILO welcomes new regulations on ship breaking
After more than five years of negotiation, delegates from 59
countries to an International Maritime Organization (IMO) conference
signed the Hong Kong Agreement regulating the recycling of ships on May
15.
For the ILO, the agreement is an important step to make ship breaking
decent work. ILO Online spoke to manufacturing specialist David Seligson
and maritime industry specialist Dani Appave from the ILO Sectoral
Activities Department.
ILO Online: Is shipbreaking among the rare industries
profiting from the current economic downturn?
David Seligson: That's correct. The crisis has hit industries
ranging from automakers to shipping, but the ship breaking business has
been booming in recent months and business is set to increase further
still. Faced with the global economic crisis, shipping companies are
trying to sell older ships for scrap several years before they reach the
normal end of their lifecycle.
According to a study by BIMCO and recent media reports, the world's
largest private shipping organization, recycling capacities will not be
able to cope with near future demand.
ILO Online: But working conditions in ship breaking yards have
also attracted attention in recent years? How will these conditions be
affected?
David Seligson: Ship recycling is labour intensive and takes
place largely in developing countries. Worker safety has clearly been an
issue.
Titanic-sized vessels are floated on to beaches and cut up by workers
who are often exposed to deadly toxins, exploding gases, falling steel
plates and other dangers. Many workers don't have access to basic
personal protective equipment such as hard hats, gloves and goggles for
steel cutting activities. Many have been killed and thousands injured
working in dangerous conditions. Efforts have been made to improve the
situation but more progress is needed if we are to reach the goal of
decent working conditions for all.
ILO Online: How can the new agreement help to make ship
breaking decent work?
David Seligson: The Hong Kong International Convention for the
Safe and Environmentally Sound Recycling of Ships, 2009 is aimed at
ensuring that ships, arriving at a recycling location at the end of
their operational lives are in such a condition that they are capable of
being recycled in safe conditions. The recycling operations should not
pose any unnecessary risk to human health and safety or to the
environment.
The new Convention intends to address all the issues around ship
recycling, including the fact that ships sold for scrapping may contain
environmentally hazardous substances such as asbestos, heavy metals,
hydrocarbons, ozone-depleting substances and others. It will address
concerns raised about the working and environmental conditions at many
of the world's ship recycling locations.
ILO Online: What do the regulations in the IMO Convention
cover?
David Seligson: Regulations in the new IMO Convention cover:
the design, construction, operation and preparation of ships so as to
facilitate safe and environmentally sound recycling, without
compromising the safety and operational efficiency of ships; the
operation of ship recycling facilities in a safe and environmentally
sound manner; and, the establishment of an appropriate enforcement
mechanism for ship recycling, incorporating certification and reporting
requirements. Ship recycling yards will be required to provide a "Ship
Recycling Plan", to specify the manner in which each ship will be
recycled, depending on its particulars and its inventory.
Parties will be required to take effective measures to ensure that
ship recycling facilities under their jurisdiction comply with the
Convention.
ILO Online: What was the role of the ILO in establishing the
new IMO Convention?
Dani Appave: The ILO has been contributing to the drafting
process of the ship recycling Convention that has been developed over
the past three years by the International Maritime Organization (IMO),
with input from IMO and ILO member States and relevant Non-Governmental
Organizations and in co-operation with the ILO and the Parties to the
Basel Convention.
ILO Online: When will the new IMO Convention enter into force?
Dani Appave: The Convention will be open for signature by
member states of the IMO from September 1, 2009 to August 31, 2010 and
shall thereafter remain open for accession by any State.
It will enter into force 24 months after the date on which 15 States,
representing 40 percent of world merchant shipping by gross tonnage,
have either signed it without reservation as to ratification, acceptance
or approval or have deposited instruments of ratification, acceptance,
approval or accession with the Secretary General.
The combined maximum annual ship recycling volume of those States
must, during the preceding 10 years, constitute not less than 3 percent
of their combined merchant shipping tonnage.
ILO Online: IMO now has a new Convention. What are the next
steps?
Dani Appave: The Convention lays the basis for ships to be
dismantled in conditions of safety for workers and the environment.
However, more detailed guidelines will be required, taking into
consideration the principles contained in other international
agreements.
As far as safety and health, asbestos and other toxins present on the
ships are concerned, the ILO provides various solutions based on its
international standards, including ILO Conventions 155, 152, 139, 148,
162 and 170 on safety and health, occupational cancer, the working
environment, and safety in the use of asbestos.
In 2003, representatives of Government, employers' and workers'
organizations from heavyweight ship breaking nations Bangladesh, China,
India, Pakistan and Turkey adopted ILO Guidelines on Safety and Health
in ship breaking.
The new IMO Convention will be accompanied by several sets of
guidelines. A correspondence group has been established to prepare
guidelines on ship recycling facilities as well as on an inventory of
hazardous materials.
The ILO will participate in this process to ensure that the new IMO
guidelines will be up to the ILO's existing instruments.
This also means that our cooperation with member States on conditions
of work in the sector should be reinforced, as well as the use of our
own Guidelines, which continue to be relevant.
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