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 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 reason 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.
This negligence in promoting decent working conditions in the fisheries sector leads to reduced interest in joining the profession by the EU citizens. This in turn contributed to the increased employment in the EU waters of migrant fishers (from non-EEA countries) who often end up working in precarious conditions or even fall victim to forced labour. Due to the specificities of the fisheries sector (working offshore for long periods of time), it is often overseen by the regulatory and enforcement bodies, making migrant fishers especially vulnerable.
The Social Partners would like especially to draw attention to the issue of the international recruitment and placement of migrant fishers, as cases of abusive and fraudulent practices are still reality in the sector.
There is therefore need for practical guidelines for the vessels owners on how to ensure that the private employment agencies that they engage comply with human rights and international and EU labour regulations.
Purpose of the contract
The contract is aimed at providing social partners with the specific expertise on recruitment practices
in fisheries sector, required to perform the above-mentioned action under Pillar 1.
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