Seafarers’ Rights in China: A Restructuring Process

Abstract

The overall objective of the research is to critically investigate the conditions of seafarers’ rights in China in legislation and practice; in particular, the restructuring process under the impact of the Maritime Labour Convention 2006. In order to achieve the objective of this research, key research questions were posed which sought the responses of Chinese major stakeholders to the Convention, to identify whether improvement in the protection of Chinese seafarers had taken place since the advent of the Convention, and further, to identify the continuing challenges for improvement. The key findings that have emerged from this research include that the Chinese government has adopted a considerable body of legal instruments as countermeasures to the Convention. However, although seafarer protection in China has been improved significantly, in particular in the areas of pre-employment conditions, there are still many serious problems. The major challenges for future improvement come from not only the front of the government authorities, but also from the practices of the maritime industry, as well as from Chinese seafarers themselves.