REPRESENTATIVES of shipowners and seafarers met the International Labour Organisation (ILO) director general Michael Hansenne in Geneva earlier this month to discuss the ILO maritime machinery and work programme. Both sides of the industry were concerned that ILO maritime activities should not be downgraded as a result of the organisation's review of sectoral activities. International Shipping Federation spokesman David Dearsley said a key ILO meeting will be held in Geneva in November to discuss revision of four ILO instruments covering the industry. These include the recruitment of seafarers, wages, hours of work and manning, labour inspections of ships and the Minimum Standards Convention No 147. ''It was therefore particularly important that we should meet the director-general to discuss how quickly the results of the meeting could be translated into direct action by ILO,'' Mr Dearsley said. International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF) spokesman Ake Selander said that as the ILO was reviewing its sectoral activities programme, both sides of the industry needed to re-emphasise the important standard-setting role that ILO has played and should continue to play in view of the problems affecting seafarers. While maritime transport is just one of the industrial sectors covered by ILO, both ISF and ITF said that they were satisfied with the outcome of the meeting and confident that the needs for the industry to retain its separate identity within ILO was fully recognised. They emphasised it was important for ILO to maintain a high profile in maritime affairs, particularly in the adoption and updating of international standards relating to human-factor issues.
