Seafarers risk losing jobs as license renewal drags on

Thousands of seafarers risk losing their jobs should they fail to renew their license to meet a newly approved certification in line with the STCW 2010 Convention, a new requirement that will enable them to serve onboard vessels.

One liner, Pacific International Lines (PIL), for instance, will have all of its 105 Ghanaian officers stay at home from next month onwards till they complete the fresh courses and are in possession of the new certificates, the B&FT has gathered.

Seafarers are required to comply with a new requirement—STCW 2010, in terms of certification to be able to sail onboard vessels effective January 1, 2017 but the country’s maritime sector regulator, Ghana Maritime Authority (GMA), is yet to train and certify seafarers to meet the new requirement.

The International Maritime Employers’ Council (IMEC) has described the situation as worrying and has accordingly advised its members to push the timely renewal of their licenses as a result of mounting pressure from multiple employing entities.

According to the global seafarers’ employment body, the jobs of many Ghanaian seafarers are at risk as fleet managers will have to look elsewhere if they—seafarers—do not get their certificates on time.

IMEC’s CEO, Francesco Gargiulo, in a statement, said: “It has been brought to IMEC’s attention that the Ghana Maritime Authority (GMA) has been extending all expiring certificates of compliance (CoCs) to December 31, 2016 and has not yet started issuing STCW 2010 Compliant Certificates.

“And that they-the GMA-will only start issuing certificates under the new standard in November this year. This leaves very little time for any seafarer holding a CoC issued in this country to have it revalidated ahead of January 1, 2017.”

The Ghana Maritime Authority has however announced that it will start the certification process from November 10, 2016.

But Ing. Teddy Mensah, Vice-chair of the Maritime Professionals Club (MPC) a body of seafarers in the country, told the B&FT that the certification was long overdue and that they are hoping on the GMA to stick to its timelines so as to save their jobs.

He said: “This is a typical attitude where we have wait till the last minute before we act; instead of being proactive. It is rather unfortunate that it has to come to this point with the GMA having been notified quite earlier.

“The worrying fact is that there are seafarers from other countries, so when the shipping lines need your services and you don’t have the certification, they will look to somewhere else, and in this case, you can’t go back after they have engaged other professionals.

According to Ing. Mensah, their fears would be allayed should the GMA go strictly by its preparations for the license renewal exercise.

“As it stands we are only counting on the Ghana Maritime Authority to stick to their timelines for the license renewal exercise so we can keep our jobs,” he added.

The B&FT also gathered that the Regional Maritime University (RMU) which produces seafarers, started training students according to the STCW 2010 requirements back in 2013 and have been churning out graduates according to the approved standards but it is the professional certification that has been dragging on.