The Central MSA released the Procedures on Handling On-board Seafarers’ Complaints (“Procedures”) on 10 January 2018. The Procedures will come into effect as from 10 January 2018. The main points of the Procedures are as follows:
I. Methods of complaint:
For crews on board the Chinese registered vessels and foreign registered vessels that are berthing at Chinese ports, if personal interests of crews are infringed by violation of the MLC 2006, the crews may file a complaint to the local MSA via onsite, website or other ways, fill in and submit the Form of Onshore Seafarers Complaint to the local MSA (the standard Form please see below). The complaint shall truthfully contain the fact of complaint, the name and contact info of crews, and the MSA will not accept any complaints without factual basis or anonymous complaint.
II. Procedures of handling complaints
If the complaint falls within the scope of duty of the local MSA that first receive such complaint, and the involved vessel is berthing at the port under jurisdiction of the same local MSA, then the complaint shall be handled directly; while if the involved vessel is berthing at a port outside the jurisdiction of the local MSA that receive such complaint, then the local MSA shall revert the complaint to the competent local MSA and inform the crew of the name and contact information of such competent MSA;
For complaint related to wages in arrear, disputes arising out of labour contract and service contract that fall outside the scope of duty of the MSA, the local MSA that accept such complaint shall notify the crew to file the complaint to the local Human Resources and Social Security Bureaus where the Shipowners domicile locates at.
III. Procedures of spot inspection
If it is necessary to conduct a spot inspection aboard, the local MSAs shall despatch officers to attend on board the involved vessel, and the involved vessel shall provide assistance. Preliminary inspection and further measures will be taken in consideration of the gravity of violation.
