All seafarers shall have access to an efficient, adequate and accountable system for finding employment on board ship without charge to the seafarer.
Seafarer recruitment and placement services operating in a Member’s territory shall conform to the standards set out in the Code.
Each Member shall require, in respect of seafarers who work on ships that fly its flag, that shipowners who use seafarer recruitment and placement services that are based in countries or territories in which the Maritime Labour Convention does not apply, ensure that those services conform to the requirements set out in the Code.
Private seafarer recruitment and placement services whose primary purpose is the recruitment and placement of seafarers or which recruit and place a significant number of seafarers, they shall be operated only in conformity with a standardized system of licensing or certification or other form of regulation.
Undue proliferation of private seafarer recruitment and placement services shall not be encouraged.
Obligations of a Seafarer Recruitment and Placement Service in Cameroon
The seafarer recruitment and placement services operating in Cameroon has to ensure the following:
- Maintain an up-to-date register of all seafarers recruited or placed through them, to be available for inspection by the competent authority;
- Make sure that seafarers are informed of their rights and duties under their employment agreements prior to or in the process of engagement and that proper arrangements are made for seafarers to examine their employment agreements before and after they are signed and for them to receive a copy of the agreements;
- Verify that seafarers recruited or placed by them are qualified and hold the documents necessary for the job concerned, and that the seafarers’ employment agreements are in accordance with applicable laws and regulations and any collective bargaining agreement that forms part of the employment agreement;
- Make sure, as far as practicable, that the shipowner has the means to protect seafarers from being stranded in a foreign port;
- Examine and respond to any complaint concerning their activities and advise the competent authority of any unresolved complaint;
- Establish a system of protection, by way of insurance or an equivalent appropriate measure, to compensate seafarers for monetary loss that they may incur as a result of the failure of a recruitment and placement service or the relevant shipowner under the seafarers’ employment agreement to meet its obligations to them.
Operational Practices of Seafarer Recruitment and Placement Service in Cameroon
These operational practices for private seafarer recruitment and placement services and, to the extent that they are applicable, for public seafarer recruitment and placement services should address the following matters:
(a) Medical examinations, seafarers’ identity documents and such other items as may be required for the seafarer to gain employment;
(b) Maintaining, with due regard to the right to privacy and the need to protect confidentiality, full and complete records of the seafarers covered by their recruitment and placement system, which should include but not be limited to:
– The seafarers’ qualifications;
– Record of employment;
– Personal data relevant to employment; and
– Medical data relevant to employment;
(c) Maintaining up-to-date lists of the ships for which the seafarer recruitment and placement services provide seafarers and ensuring that there is a means by which the services can be contacted in an emergency at all hours;
(d) Procedures to ensure that seafarers are not subject to exploitation by the seafarer recruitment and placement services or their personnel with regard to the offer of engagement on particular ships or by particular companies;
(e) Procedures to prevent the opportunities for exploitation of seafarers arising from the issue of joining advances or any other financial transaction between the ship owner and the seafarers which are handled by the seafarer recruitment and placement services;
(f) Clearly publicizing costs, if any, which the seafarer will be expected to bear in the recruitment process;
(g) Ensuring that seafarers are advised of any particular conditions applicable to the job for which they are to be engaged and of the particular shipowner’s policies relating to their employment;
(h) Procedures which are in accordance with the principles of natural justice for dealing with cases of incompetence or indiscipline consistent with national laws and practice and, where applicable, with collective agreements;
(i) Procedures to ensure, as far as practicable, that all mandatory certificates and documents submitted for employment are up to date and have not been fraudulently obtained and that employment references are verified;
(j) Procedures to ensure that requests for information or advice by families of seafarers while the seafarers are at sea are dealt with promptly and sympathetically and at no cost; and
(k) Verifying that labour conditions on ships where seafarers are placed are in conformity with applicable collective bargaining agreements concluded between a shipowner and a representative seafarers’ organization and, as a matter of policy, supplying seafarers only to shipowners that offer terms and conditions of employment to seafarers which comply with applicable laws or regulations or collective agreements.
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