UK joins efforts to ensure decent work in the fishing sector

The United Kingdom has deposited the instrument of ratification of the Work in Fishing Convention, 2007 (No.188) with the ILO, marking the first ratification of any Convention in the ILO’s Centenary year.

The United Kingdom, a major actor in the European fishing sector, is the 13th Member State of the ILO to ratify Convention No. 188.

Adopted by the International Labour Conference in 2007, the Convention revises and brings up-to-date earlier ILO fishing Conventions. It provides a modern, flexible regulatory framework for the more than 38 million people worldwide who work in capture fisheries and covers both large fishing operations and small-scale fisheries. The United Kingdom fishing sector includes more than 6,000 vessels and 12,000 fishers.

“I am proud to mark the ILO’s Centenary by committing to enhancing working conditions on behalf of the UK, the first country to do so this year,” said UK Under Secretary of State for Transport, Nusrat Ghani. 

Convention No.188 will enter into force for the United Kingdom on 8 January 2020, one year after its ratification. The Convention has now been ratified by Angola, Argentina, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Congo, Estonia, France, Lithuania, Morocco, Namibia, Norway, Senegal, South Africa, and the United Kingdom.

Original source: ILO
Published on 16 January 2019