Background
Sea fishing remains one of the most dangerous professional activity in the world. Yet, for many years the attention of the legislators and policy makers has been focused on the environmental side of the sector. The ratification level of international conventions dedicated to safety and decent working conditions in fisheries is terribly low. Lack of coordination between different units of national administrations and international bodies dealing with fisheries seem to be one of the key reasons behind the current state.
For instance, the overarching ILO Convention Work in Fishing (ILO C188) has been ratified by only 14 countries, out of which three EU Member States. The Social Partners have been promoting the ratification of the Convention for years. To that end, we concluded in 2012 the Agreement on implementing the ILO Work in Fishing Convention, transferred into the EU law by the Council Directive (EU) 2017/159. However, this Directive still has to be implemented by the Member States. Also the IMO International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Fishing Vessel Personnel, 1995 has a low number of ratification compared to the merchant shipping equivalent.
The ILO C188 and the IMO STCW-F are relevant for example in regard to the occupational health of fishers. According to art. 10 of the Work in Fishing Convention, no fisherman shall work on board a fishing vessel without a valid medical certificate. However, there are no specific guidelines for medical examination of fishers. With regard to the STCW-F, a comparable situation occurs. It stands in contrast with the situation of merchant seafarers, who are covered by the joint ILO/IMO guidelines on medical examination. Certain countries use the latter to cover also fishers, but in reality these guidelines haven’t been composed with the few of application to fishers and it is questioned whether they fit specificities of sea fishing. It means that there is no health surveillance or occupational disease prevention in the fisheries sector.
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