Will new amendments to the 2025 Maritime Labour Convention advance seafarer rights? 

More than 90% of global trade moves across oceans, yet the 1.9 million seafarers enabling this trade often operate in a legal grey zone. 

The risks they face are manifold - from protracted conflict in key shipping lanes, to being charged illegal recruitment fees to secure a job. 

The Maritime Labour Convention (MLC), described as a ‘Seafarers’ Bill of Rights’ first entered into force in 2013 and was designed to establish a single and enforceable global framework for maritime labour standards. To this day the MLC remains the most comprehensive international instrument to strengthen protections for seafarers. 

Since the Convention's introduction, a number of amendments have been made, with the most recent amendments notified by the ILO in June 2025 and expected to enter into force in late December 2027.

These new amendments, broadly welcomed by civil society, include commitments such as recognising seafarers as ‘key‑workers’; guaranteed shore leave; and protections against violence and harassment. 

Yet, evidence of endemic issues—such as a 136% rise in vessel abandonments in 2024, widespread illegal recruitment fees, and persistent digital isolation—are persistent. 

As Simon Grainge, Chief Executive of the International Seafarers’ Welfare and Assistance Networks, shared: “These amendments are a welcome development but also a shocking reflection of the way that some seafarers are still treated. A reasonable onlooker would be astonished at the need to stipulate conditions such as ‘good quality drinking water being available free of charge.”

Pressing questions remain about enforcement and whether the new rules will translate into meaningful change. Will recent amendments address systemic failures? Will they keep up with evolving risks, and what gaps remain? Crucially, will key stakeholders—businesses, states, shipowners, operators, and recruitment intermediaries—take the proactive steps needed to implement these protections?

Headline changes to the Maritime Labour Convention

Unlike the previous amendment cycles, which largely focused on health, safety, and repatriation standards, the 2025 reforms explicitly broaden the scope to worker recognition, repatriation, shore leave, mental well-being, gender inclusion, and harassment protections. 

The designation of seafarers as “key workers” is a major change. The ILO notes that this is a first for an international labour instrument. 

Shore leave has been reframed as a legal right. Standard A2.4.2 now prevents ports from demanding visas or special permits and requires written reasons for any denial. Evidence from the Mission to Seafarers’ Happiness Index shows why this matters: the Q4 2024 report recorded a drop in overall happiness from 7.16 to 6.91 out of 10, with restricted shore access identified as a principal cause of declining morale. Seafarers’ testimonies emphasise that restrictive port policies became a significant source of stress and mental health decline.

Repatriation obligations (2.5) have been clarified, providing more detail for businesses of their responsibility to ensure the safe return home of seafarers after a deployment. The amended standard requires shipowners to pay for travel, 30 kg of baggage, accommodation, food, financial allowances, and medical care until the seafarer arrives home safely. This change responds to a surge in abandonment cases. 

Violence and harassment provisions are integrated through the incorporation of ILO Convention C190. The amendments mandate ILO Convention C190 and require zero‑tolerance policies, confidential reporting and fair treatment. Data collected by the Global Maritime Forum’s Diversity@Sea pilot show that 42 % of maritime workers surveyed had experienced bullying or harassment.

Amendment oversights? Issues left unresolved

Recruitment fees

Illegal recruitment fees remain endemic. A 2024 survey by IHRB and Turtle, found that 31% of seafarers surveyed were asked to pay a recruitment fee and nearly half of those paid between US$500 and US$5,000, with some paying over US$10,000. Seventy‑four per cent of those asked paid the fee, often because they felt they had no choice, and only one in five reported the demand to authorities. 

This entrenched practice perpetuates debt bondage and violates the Employer Pays Principle, which requires employers to bear all costs associated with employment. By shifting these costs onto workers, seafarers are pushed into cycles of poverty and indebtedness that heighten their vulnerability to forced labour and modern slavery. The absence of stronger measures for prohibitions in the amendments represents a major missed opportunity.

Seafarer abandonment

Shipowners abandon vessels, and by extension their crews, often to avoid financial liabilities when a company becomes insolvent, faces disputes, or seeks to cut losses on unprofitable trips. The ITF’s 2024 report documented a 136% year‑on‑year increase in abandonment cases and identified Panama (43), Palau (37), Tanzania (30), and Comoros (29) as the worst‑performing flag states. 

The human cost is severe: abandoned seafarers are often stranded for months without wages, food, or medical care, unable to disembark due to immigration rules, and left to rely on charity for survival.  The 2025 revision bars flag-based discrimination in repatriation and improves State cooperation (Standard A2.5.1), but without addressing weak flag State enforcement and open registry practices, abandonment remains a largely unresolved human rights violation at sea.

Open Registries and flag state failures in protecting seafarers

An open registry, often called a “flag of convenience”, is a system in which a country (called a ‘Flag State’) allows shipowners from any nation to register their vessels under its flag, usually in exchange for registration fees and other revenues. These registries, such as those operated by Panama and Palau, often have lower maritime labour standards and weaker enforcement, making them attractive to shipowners seeking to reduce costs or avoid stricter oversight.

‘Flag State’ obligations remain the weakest link in maritime labour enforcement.The surge in abandonment cases linked to open registries illustrates the human impact: when flag States fail to enforce the Maritime Labour Convention’s provisions, seafarers are left without recourse to claim unpaid wages, secure repatriation, or ensure basic onboard safety.

Fear to use complaint mechanisms

Evidence indicates that complaint mechanisms exist but are under‑used by seafarers. Seafarers’ Rights International surveyed crews and found that while 80% of respondents had onboard complaint procedures, only 17 % had ever used them. Reasons for under‑reporting by seafarers included fear of retaliation, fatigue, and lack of legal awareness. This reinforces the case for legal awareness campaigns, whistleblower protections, and independent grievance mechanisms to protect workers in such situations.

Concealment of overtime

Fatigue and falsified work records present another challenge. In a 2025 study by Cardiff University’s Seafarers International Research Centre, researchers surveyed 1,240 cargo ship workers and 1,202 cruise ship crew members. They found that fatigue remained an “intractable problem,” with many instances of work‑and‑rest hour records being falsified to conceal overwork. More than a third (over 33 %) of cargo ship crew reported insufficient sleep in the previous 48 hours. 

Digital connectivity remains a challenge. A Diversity@Sea report found that 46% of seafarers surveyed said they received one week’s worth or less of reliable internet—typically insufficient for meaningful communication or personal use (approximately 1 GB per week). The report noted that 1 GB/day is needed to meaningfully support social contact and wellbeing. The 2025 MLC amendments do not treat connectivity as a welfare right, leaving its provision to shipowner discretion. 

Inclusive personal protective equipment (PPE) and parental leave are partly addressed but not fully resolved. No mandatory provisions exist on PPE fit or paid parental leave, despite evidence from Diversity@Sea that inclusive gear and family‑friendly policies significantly improve retention and gender diversity. 

Implications for States, shipowners, and businesses

Needless to say, the MLC amendments are a welcome step towards improving seafarers’ welfare; however,gaps remain. Stakeholders such as businesses, shipowners, and states should take proactive measures to address these shortcomings. Businesses, as transnational drivers of change, should go beyond the MLC’s baseline requirements and work towards full implementation of voluntary standards such as the Seafarers’ Rights Code of Conduct, the ITF-ICS-ILO Guidelines on Eliminating Shipboard Harassment and Bullying, and, more holistically, the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs).

Moving forward, member states to the MLC should take a number of additional actions to address ongoing challenges for the shipping industry. These include:

1. Criminalising recruitment fee charging and mandating transparency – Make recruitment fee charging a criminal offence and require agencies to publish fee structures. Embed the Employer Pays Principle in law, backed by strong penalties. 

2. Strengthening port-State control and  restitution – Detain vessels with invalid employment agreements or withholding wages, and impose fines tied to amounts owed. Ensure that all seafarers from such detained vessels are repatriated to their home countries with no wages outstanding. 

3. Recognising digital connectivity as a welfare right – Mandate a minimum daily data allowance (e.g., 1 GB), funded by the vessel owner or operator. 

4. Codifying inclusive personal protective equipment (PPE) and parental leave standards – Require PPE tailored to diverse body types and introduce parental leave standards (14 weeks maternity, two weeks paternity).

5. Reducing crew fatigue through audits and insurance incentives – Regularly check if ships are following rules on working and rest hours by using electronic records and talking directly to crew. Companies that implement these rules should receive discounts on insurance costs.  Those who do not comply should be penalised, including penalties such as more expensive insurance rates.

6. Investing in training and legal awareness: Shipowners should provide targeted training to seafarers in automation, digitalisation, and emerging green fuels, coupled with regular briefings on seafarers’ rights. This equips crews to work safely with new technologies, strengthens compliance, and empowers them to address unsafe or unfair practices.

The new amendments to the Maritime Labour Convention mark a significant step forward in ensuring rights at sea, responding to long-standing demands. For the first time, seafarers are formally recognised as key workers, obligating States to take action. Yet critical enforcement gaps remain. Structural issues such as widespread illegal recruitment fees, increasing seafarer abandonment, lack of accountability among Flag States, and weak complaint mechanisms continue to undermine the rights the Convention seeks to uphold. While the amendments are significant, effective implementation will depend on robust inspection regimes, greater willingness by businesses to lead by example, and stronger political will from both port and flag States all aimed at protecting workers at sea.