News: ILO issues a revised information note, Singapore MPA issues new requirements for crew change

Previously, the club had shared the ILO Information note on Maritime Labour issues and coronavirus (COVID-19) which is available on the right.

ILO has issued a revised version 2.0 including a joint statement of the Officers of the Special Tripartite Committee of the Maritime Labour Convention.

The new information note reiterates the importance of seafarers and global trade in these difficult times and asks member states to recognize seafarers as ‘key workers’ to facilitate crew changes. The note also touches upon other key issues such as Force Majeure, seafarer contract extension and fatigue.

The revised note is available for download on the right.

Singapore MPA has released a new Port Marine circular (PMC) 31 of 2020. The new circular is a supplement to PMC 26 and 27 of 2020 which deals with the requirements for crew changes in the Port of Singapore.

Citing the recent cases of crew members who tested positive for COVID-19 upon arrival in Singapore, which posed a health risk to the crew that travel with them, to the ships they were to join, and to the local community, MPA is working with the industry taskforce to provide more detailed guidelines to safeguard the crew change process. These will include the need for signing-on crew to self-isolate for the 14 days before departing for Singapore. Ship owners, managers and agents will have to ensure that accurate COVID-19 Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) tests are done, and the crew will need to be directly transferred to the ship upon arrival in Singapore.

The circulars are attached on the right.

类别: COVID-19, Loss Prevention