§ 2.52 p.m.
§ Lord BROCKWAYMy Lords, I beg leave to ask the Question which stands in my name on the Order Paper.
The Question was as follows:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how far the Conventions on Seafarers' Conditions adopted at the 1976 ILO Maritime Conference have been ratified.
Lord WALLACE of COSLANYMy Lords, I would refer my noble friend to the White Paper, Cmnd. 7163, presented to Parliament on 24th April which indicates the position in the United Kingdom. The requirements of the conventions on continuity of employment and on minimum standards in merchant ships are already substantially satisfied but further discussions with the shipping industry are necessary to establish whether all of them are met in all British ships. The requirements of the annual leave convention are generally speaking not yet satisfied.
§ Lord BROCKWAYMy Lords, will the Minister agree that these conventions and recommendations, which include continuity of employment, a minimum standard of life and protection for young sailors, would mean almost a revolution in the conditions of those in the merchant service? Does he remember that the British Government supported all these conventions and recommendations at the ILO? Will the Government do their utmost not only to ratify them on behalf of the British Government but to influence other Governments to ratify them as well?
Lord WALLACE of COSLANYMy Lords, in reply to my noble friend, may I say that we are most certainly doing our best to get complete finality so far as conditions of employment and standards are concerned. Leave with pay is a little more complicated, but the general 129 approach of the British Government is entirely in accord with the views of my noble friend.
§ Lord SHINWELLMy Lords, is it not true that the regulations relating to safety of seafarers associated with another Amendment to the Merchant Shipping Act have not yet been produced by the Government although they made a promise to do so many months ago? Is my noble friend also aware that it is customary with the ILO not to ratify conventions? Is he aware that in 1930 I succeeded in obtaining unanimously from an ILO Conference in Geneva a convention for the reduction of miners' hours of labour in all coal-producing countries, and we are still waiting for the ratification?
Lord WALLACE of COSLANYMy Lords, my noble friend obviously understands that ILO conventions lay down international labour standards, and the standards are made for international achievement. We are doing our utmost to reach complete achievement, and in many cases achievement has been realised. So far as safety and other factors are concerned, that is outside the range of the immediate question, but I shall make inquiries and no doubt my noble friend will put down a Question on the subject.
§ Lord SHINWELLMy Lords, could anything really be lost to anybody—except the large number of civil servants associated with the ILO—if it was closed down entirely?
Lord WALLACE of COSLANYMy Lords, that is an entirely different question, with which I am not inclined to agree.