C1.4.b. What is a seafarer recruitment and placement service? What is a public or private sector service?

Article II, paragraph 1(h) of the MLC, 2006 defines a seafarer recruitment and placement service as “any person, company, institution, agency or other organization, in the public or the private sector, which is engaged in recruiting seafarers on behalf of shipowners or placing seafarers with shipowners”. Under Standard A1.4, paragraph 2, the Convention’s requirements relating to private seafarer recruitment and placement services apply where their primary purpose is the recruitment and placement of seafarers or where they recruit and place a significant number of seafarers. In the event of doubt as to whether the Convention applies to a private recruitment and placement service, the question is to be determined by the competent authority in each country after consultation with the shipowners’ and seafarers’ organizations concerned.

As noted above, Article II, paragraph 1(h), defines the term “seafarer recruitment and placement services” with respect to both “public or private sector” and clarifies that the term applies to services that provide either recruitment or placement services or provide both services. However, this definition does not provide further information on the terms “private” or “public”. A public service would be understood as a free service operated by the government, either a ministry or an agency, established to provide this service for seafarers and/or other workers (see Standard A1.4, paragraph 4). By contrast, a private service is operated as a commercial enterprise.

Recruitment and placement