The European Union should provide lifelong career prospects in the maritime industry and maritime clusters and facilitate career progression from rating to officer jobs as well as labour mobility in the maritime industries throughout Europe, the European Social Partners for Maritime Transport said in a joint position paper.
The social partnership comprising of the European Community Shipowners’ Associations (ECSA) and the European Transport Workers’ Federation (ETF) presented the joint position paper on the Commission’s Mid-Term Maritime Strategy Review on the 22nd of May.
It is the very first time that ECSA and ETF have expressed such a common vision on the future of the European Commission’s maritime transport policy, proving once again the vitality and the effectiveness of the dialogue existing at EU level between social partners.
The Social Partners insist in their joint submission on the need to ensure thorough enforcement of a number of international and European requirements, such as the international Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers (STCW), and call for continuous improvements of the standards of the Maritime Labour Convention.
The joint position paper further underlines the need to provide an appropriate framework for the provision, improvement and adaptation of education and training for crews, for example by means of more state support for training and education, and through continued support for projects put forward by the Social Partners for Maritime Transport in their Sectoral Social Dialogue Committee.
The joint position paper will be an important contribution to the Commission’s ongoing review of its 2009-2018 maritime strategy. This document complements the individual answers that both associations submitted in the framework of the public consultation on this exercise earlier this year.