Công văn 2654/CHHVN-VT&DVHH

To: The Ministry of Transport

On August 12, 2013, the Ministry of Transport issued Decision No. 2382/QD-BGTVT approving the Plan for implementation of Decision 1221/QD-TTg dated July 25, 2013 of the Prime Minister approving the Plan for Implementation of the Maritime Labour Convention (MLC) 2006, the Vietnam Maritime Administration has some suggestions as follows:

1. Based on the provisions in Clause 3 and 4, Article VIII of Maritime Labour Convention-MLC 2006: “The Convention shall come into force 12 months after the date on which there have been registered ratifications by at least 30 member countries with a total share in the world gross tonnage of ship of at least 33%. Thereafter, this Convention shall come into force for any member 12 months after the date on which its ratification has been registered”. Thus, from the date of August 20.2013, the MLC 2006 officially takes effect for 30 original member countries (with the list attached), including: the Philippines, Singapore, etc. ... and officially takes effect for Vietnam from the date of August 05, 2014.

2. On July 12, 2013, Secretary General Tokyo Mou sent a Notice No.TMS13/18 to the maritime authorities of member countries of the Tokyo MOU Organization guiding the port state control officers (PSCO) on the Maritime Labor Convention-MLC 2006. Thereafter, the Tokyo MOU Organization defines as follows: “Based on the Resolution No. XVII adopted by the International Labor Organization at the 94^th Maritime Conference meeting regarding the issue of certification, within one ( 01 ) year after the MLC 2006 takes effect from August 20, 2013, both administrative authorities of the national flag vessel and port authorities shall consider allowing ships to continue their activities without a Declaration of maritime labor compliance and the maritime labor Certificate on the condition that the PSCO has no evidence that the ship has not complied with the provisions of MLC 2006. The PSCO unnecessarily performs detailed inspection over the ships which do not have the maritime labor Certificate and the Declaration of maritime labor compliance or the temporary maritime labor Certificate”;

To implement the issue of Declaration of maritime labor compliance part I and approve the Declaration of maritime labor compliance part II and issue of maritime labor Certificate to the vessels flying Vietnamese national flag subject to application of MLC 2006, it is necessary to uniformly stipulate the order, procedures, responsibility and method of implementation in order to facilitate the administrative procedures for the ship owner, the Vietnam Maritime Administration hereby requests the Ministry of Transport to issue the Circular defining the issue and revocation of Declaration of maritime labor compliance and the maritime labor Certificate;

The Vietnam Maritime Administration hereby reports to the Ministry of Transport for consideration and approval./.