CONVENTION No.71 Convention concerning Seafarers' Pensions
CONVENTION No.71 Convention concerning Seafarers' Pensions
[Date of coming into force: 10 October 1962.]
Whole document
The General Conference of the International Labour Organization,
Having been convened at Seattle by the Governing Body of the
International Labour Office, and having met in its Twenty-eighth Session
on 6 June 1946, and
Having decided upon the adoption of certain proposals with regard to
seafarers' pensions, which is included in the second item on the agenda
of the Session, and
Having determined that these proposals shall take the form of an
international Convention, adopts this twenty-eighth day of June of the
year one thousand nine hundred and forty-six the following Convention,
which may be cited as the Seafarers' Pensions Convention, 1946:
Article 1
In this Convention the term "seafarer" includes every person employed
on board or in the service of any sea-going vessel, other than a ship of
war, which is registered in a territory for which the Convention is in
force.
Article 2
1. Each Member of the International Labour Organization for which this
Convention is in force shall, in accordance with national laws or
regulations, establish or secure the establishment of a scheme for the
payment of pensions to seafarers on retirement from sea service.
2. The schema may embody such exceptions as the Member deems necessary
in respect of-
(a) persons employed on board or in the service of
(i) vessels of public authorities when such vessels are not
engaged in trade;
(ii) vessels which are not engaged in the transport of cargo
or passengers for the purpose of trade;
(iii) fishing vessels;
(iv) vessels engaged in hunting seals;
(v) vessels of less than 200 gross register tons;
(vi) wooden ships of primitive build such as dhows and junks;
(vii) in so far as ships registered in India are concerned and
for a period not exceeding five years from the date of the registration of
the ratification of the Convention by India, home-trade vessels of a gross
register tonnage not exceeding 300 tons;
(b) members of the shipowner's family;
(c) pilots not members of the crew;
(d) persons employed on board or in the service of the ship by an
employer other than the shipowner, except radio officers or operators and
catering staff;
(e) persons employed in port who are not ordinarily employed at
sea;
(f) salaried employees in the service of a national public
authority who are entitled to benefits at least equivalent on the whole to
those provided for in this Convention;
(g) persons not remunerated for their services or remunerated only
by a nominal salary or wage, or remunerated exclusively by a share of
profits;
(h) persons working exclusively on their own account;
(i) persons employed on board or in the service of whale-catching,
floating factory or transport vessels or otherwise for the purpose of
whaling or similar operations under conditions regulated by the provisions
of a special collective whaling or similar agreement determining the rates
of pay, hours of work and other conditions of service concluded by an
organization of seafarers concerned;
(j) persons not resident in the territory of the Member;
(k) persons not nationals of the Member.
Article 3
1. The scheme shall comply with one of the following conditions:
(a) the pensions provided by the scheme-
(i) shall be payable to seafarers having completed a
prescribed period of sea service on attaining the age of fifty-five or
sixty years as may be prescribed by the scheme; and
(ii) shall, together with any other social security pension
payable simultaneously to the pensioner, be at a rate not less than the
total obtained by computing for each year of his sea service 1.5 per cent.
of the remuneration on the basis of which contributions were paid in
respect of him for that year if the scheme provides pensions on attaining
the age of fifty-five years or 2 per cent. of such remuneration if the
scheme provides pensions at the age of sixty years; or
(b) the scheme shall provide pensions the financing of which,
together with the financing of any other social security Pension payable
simultaneously to the pensioner and any social security benefits payable
to the dependants (as defined by national laws or regulations) of deceased
pensioners, requires a premium income from all sources which is not less
than 10 per cent. of the total remuneration on the basis of which
contributions are paid to the scheme.
2. Seafarers collectively shall not contribute more than half the cost
of the pensions payable under the scheme.
Article 4
1. The scheme shall make appropriate provision for the maintenance of
rights in course of acquisition by persons ceasing to be subject thereto
or for the payment to such persons of a benefit representing a return for
the contributions credited to their account.
2. The scheme shall grant a right of appeal in any dispute arising
thereunder.
3. The scheme may provide for the forfeiture or suspension of the
right to a pension in whole or in part if the person concerned has acted
fraudulently.
4. The shipowners and the seafarers who contribute to the cost of the
pensions payable under the scheme shall be entitled to participate through
representatives in the management of the scheme.
Article 5
The formal ratifications of this Convention shall be communicated to
the Director-General of the International Labour Office for registration.
Article 6
1. This Convention shall be binding only upon those Members of the
International Labour Organization whose ratifications have been registered
with the Director-General.
2. It shall come into force six months after the date on which there
have been registered ratifications by five of the following countries:
United States of America, Argentine Republic, Australia, Belgium, Brazil,
Canada, Chile, China, Denmark, Finland, France, United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Northern Ireland, Greece, India, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands,
Norway, Poland, Portugal, Sweden, Turkey and Yugoslavia, including at
least three countries each of which has at least one million gross
register tons of shipping. This provision is included for the purpose of
facilitating and encouraging early rectification of the Convention by
Member States.
3. Thereafter, this Convention shall come into force for any Member
six months after the date on which its ratification has been registered.
Article 7
1. A Member which has ratified this Convention may denounce it after
the expiration of ten years from the date on which the Convention comes
into force, by an act communicated to the Director-General of the
International Labour Office for registration. Such denunciation shall not
take effect until one year after the date on which it is registered.
2. Each Member which has ratified this Convention and which does not,
within the year following the expiration of the period of ten years
mentioned in the preceding paragraph, exercise the right of denunciation
provided for in this Article, will be bound for another period of ten
years and, thereafter, may denounce this Convention at the expiration of
each period of ten years under the terms provided for in this Article.
Article 8
1. The Director-General of the International Labour Office shall
notify all the Members of the International Labour Organization of the
registration of all ratifications and denunciations communicated to him by
the Members of the Organization.
2. When notifying the Members of the Organization of the registration
of the last of the ratifications required to bring the Convention into
force, the Director-General shall draw the attention of the Members of the
Organization to the date upon which the Convention will come into force.
Article 9
The Director-General of the International Labour Office shall
communicate to the Secretary-General of the United Nations for
registration in accordance with Article 102 of the Charter of the United
Nations full particulars of all ratifications and acts of denunciation
registered by him in accordance with the provisions of the preceding
Articles.
Article 10
At such times as it may consider necessary the Governing Body of the
International Labour Office shall present to the General Conference a
report on the working of this Convention and shall examine the
desirability of placing on the agenda of the Conference the question of
its revision in whole or in part.
Article 11
1. Should the Conference adopt a new Convention revising this
Convention in whole or in part, then, unless the new Convention otherwise
provides,
(a) the ratification by a Member of the new revising Convention
shall ipso jure involve the immediate denunciation of this Convention,
notwithstanding the provisions of Article 7 above, if and when the new
revising Convention shall have come into force;
(b) as from the date when the new revising Convention comes into
force, this Convention shall cease to be open to ratification by the
Members.
2. This Convention shall in any case remain in force in its actual
form and content for those Members which have ratified it but have not
ratified the revising Convention.
Article 12
The English and French versions of the text of this Convention are
equally authoritative.
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