Arbeitsschutz auf fremdflaggigen Seeschiffen im Hafen

The paper deals with the application of binding rules and regulations relating to the safety of life of seafarers and the protection of their health on board of merchant ships. In Germany, the seafarers' act (Seemannsgesetz) contains most of these obligations; but it applies only to seafarers on ships under German flag. Labour conditions on board foreign ships in a German port remain under the jurisdiction of the flag State (Art. 94(3) of the Law of the Sea Convention). But the port State may control whether proper jurisdiction and control with respect to foreign ships have been exercised and it may report the facts to the flag State which, if appropriate, shall take any action necessary to remedy the situation (Art. 94(6) of the mentioned Convention). In German ports, the See-Berufsgenossenschaft, acting on behalf of the federal shipping administration as the competent maritime authority, controls whether the safety conditions for seafarers on board foreign ships are in conformity with the international minimum standards set forth in the Merchant Shipping Minimum Standards Convention 1976 (No. 147) and the additional Protocol of 1996 of the International Labour Organization (ILO). The control is conducted in accordance with the provisions of the Paris Memorandum on port State control (MOU). It requires, however, a complaint about the labour conditions on board the ship. In accordance with the generally recognised no-better-treatment rule, ships flying the flag of a third State are equally subject to this control. Unlike labour conditions for seafarers, those of dock workers engaged on foreign merchant ships in port are exclusively under the jurisdiction of the port State. The German seafarers' act does not apply to dock workers. Germany has ratified the ILO-Convention No. 152 concerning Occupational Safety and Health in Dock Work of 1979 and other conventions relating to such work. The competence for the control of their working conditions is vested in the labour administration of the Land in which the port is located. The ILO Maritime Labour Convention 2006 (MLC 2006) reviews the international minimum standards of labour conditions on merchant ships. It requires port State control of all merchant ships regardless of their flag, which are visiting a port. The Convention is expected to come into force in 2011 and it is deemed to become the fourth pillar of international maritime law besides the three global IMO Conventions SOLAS, MARPOL and STCW.