Global leaders from organisations representing seafarers, shipowners and other maritime employers, met with Philippine president Ferdinand Marcos Jr, earlier this week as part of his foreign policy tour in Brussels, discussing ways to improve the reputation of one of the world’s most important suppliers of crews.
Top of the agenda was the immediate concern of employers and crew that as many as 50,000 seafarers faced being barred from crewing European Union-flagged vessels over qualification issues.
The threat is due to a warning from the bloc’s maritime regulator that the Philippines needed to address unacceptable deficiencies in crew’s education, training and certification. Failure to do so would push out Filipino seafarers, a labour source so critical that one delegate described as “too big to fail”.
Delegates were reassured to hear Marcos pledge that his administration will do “everything” to address these deficiencies identified by the European Commission’s Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) “to prevent job losses among Filipino seafarers,” he said.
Marcos ordered the Department of Migrant Worker to create an advisory board be made up of employers, shipowners and unions, in conjunction with the Philippines government and the International Labor Organization.
Delegates also urged Marcos to defend Filipino jobs, by reforming the country’s problematic seafarers claims industry.
While intended to secure speedy resolution and compensation for injured and aggrieved crew, the injury claims industry system today sees seafarers’ hardship and goodwill exploited by ambulance-chasing lawyers.
In 2000, Filipino crew made up 28.5% of the global seafarer population, however by 2020, that figure had dropped to just 14%.
