China ratifies Maritime Labour Convention

China’s National People’s Congress Standing Committee stated that under the MLC 2006, maritime workers must be offered various benefits such as medical, work-related injury compensation, and insurance for unemployment and child birth in China.

The MLC 2006 does not apply to the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) and the Macau SAR for the time being, the committee highlighted.

The convention was passed by the International Labour Organisation in 2006 and came into force on 20 August 2013.

As of March 2015, the convention has been ratified by 66 countries representing more than 80% of the world’s gross tonnage of ships.