Shipping Industry Labor-Management Joint Declaration Announced: "Innovation in Working Conditions"

Participation of Korea Shipping Association and National Seafarers' Union

On the morning of the 25th, the Korea Shipping Association and the National Federation of Maritime Seamen's Unions announced a "Joint Labor-Management Declaration for Innovation in Seafarer Jobs and Securing Global Competitiveness of the Shipping Industry" at the Marine Center in Jungang-dong, Busan.

Through this joint declaration, labor and management agreed to innovate seafarer working conditions to an advanced country standard and improve manpower management methods. They conducted close labor-management negotiations for four months.

Jung Tae-sun, Chairman of the Korea Shipping Association (left), and Park Sung-yong, Chairman of the National Seafarers' Labor Union, are posing for a commemorative photo.
[Photo by Korea Shipping Association]

Specifically, they will shorten the seafarer onboard service period and appropriately expand paid leave. They will also cooperate to overcome reasons for avoiding seafarer jobs by promptly introducing a high-speed internet system on ships. The policy on seafarer manpower will be improved by converting the foreign seafarer employment restriction system to a mandatory boarding system for Korean seafarers and promoting a pilot project for foreign captains.

This is significant as labor and management have prepared concrete implementation plans for the "Seafarer Job Innovation Plan" announced by the government last July. Labor and management will prepare detailed plans through a separate negotiation body by the end of this year.

Jung Tae-sun, chairman of the Korea Shipping Association, emphasized that "win-win cooperation between labor and management is more important than ever in preparation for the shipping industry's recession due to the global economic downturn," and stated, "We will build a future-oriented labor-management relationship for the sustainable development of the shipping industry, which plays a key role in national import-export logistics and economic security."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.