The MLC is a comprehensive international employment Convention adopted by the ILO International Labour Conference in February 2006.


It contains seafarers’ rights to decent conditions of work and creates conditions of fair competition for shipowners. It will be globally applicable, easily understandable, and up to date and uniformly enforced and become the global 4th pillar of the international regulatory regime for quality shipping, alongside SOLAS, STCW and MARPOL.


It provides a comprehensive set of global standards, based on previous ILO maritime labour instruments (Conventions and Recommendations), adopted between 1920 and 1996. Combining all but four existing maritime labour instruments into a single Convention with a new format, and updating them to reflect modern conditions and language. It consolidates and revises previous existing international law on all matters.