International maritime stakeholders said that despite the European Commission’s extention of the recognition of certificates of Filipino seafarers, some practices could still pose a threat to their livelihood.
Among the issues raised by stakeholders include the push to lower down carbon emission of shipping industry and the so-called ‘ambulance chasing’ can endanger the livelihood of Filipino seafarers.
Francesco Gargiulo, CEO of the International Maritime Employers Council and Natalie Shaw, director of employment affairs of the International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) said in a press briefing that ‘ambulance chasing’ may affect Filipino employment.
Ambulance chasing occurs when lawyers actively go after victims of accidents and convince them to ask for large settlements for employees.
“It’s the reason why a number of our members, maritime employers, have decided to shift their manpower source away from the Philippines and towards perhaps sometimes less qualified manpower sources,” Gargiulo said.
ICS said due to ambulance chasing the number of Filipino seafarers from 20% to around 14.4% worldwide.
“It’s very important to us that the system is reviewed to make sure that appropriate measures are put in place, and to mitigate the situation of ambulance chasing so that the Filipino seafarers can be seen as a viable option in the global fleet,” Shaw said.
The group hopes that the Magna Carta for Seafarers would address the issue of ambulance chasing.
“I’m very confident that if we were to get to a place at some point… where we have a Magna Carta in place that defends the seafarers’ rights as well as protects some of the employers from abuses such as ambulance chasing, we will see a resurgence of Filipino numbers,” Gargiulo said.
Decarbonization is also another issue that would potentially affect seafarers.
“What we’re looking at with the Maritime Just Transition Task Force is not the ship, which is essentially what a lot of the discussions around decarbonization focus on. What we’re looking at really is the people. So the seafarers, those that will be required to develop new skills and handle new alternative fuels,” said Vicente.
