Nautical Institute STCW up-date December 2008
The major initiative currently being considered by the IMO’s Standards of Training and Watchkeeping Sub-Committee (STW) is the revision of the STCW Convention and Code.
An STW intercessional working group meeting was held in mid 2008 to progress this revision ahead of the next annual STW Sub-Committee meeting in February 2009. A further international working group meeting may be required
in mid 2009, and then following the next STW meeting in early 2010 there is expected to be a diplomatic conference later in 2010 to complete the process and reach agreement on the next version of STCW.
One significant project in the revision of STCW is to establish improved guidelines for the determination of safe manning levels of ships and Australia has been an active
member of the working and correspondence groups that have been moving this work along.
Associated with safe manning is fitness for duty and hours of work or rest, which is dealt with in Chapter VIII, Watchkeeping standards. Current initiatives are to harmonise
with the International Labour Organisation’s standards in the Consolidated Maritime Labour Convention, and to extend the hours of work protection to non-watchkeeping responsible officers, such as the master and the chief
engineer. However, the extent to which these initiatives will be achieved is uncertain.
AMSA develops an Australian position for its IMO delegations by circulating advice on proposed submissions and delegation briefs to a comprehensive list of Australian
maritime industry stakeholders. This year, because of the additional workload of the STCW revision, AMSA hosted a meeting in Canberra in November of key industry representatives.
At the same time that AMSA is working on its international obligations at IMO, it is also actively progressing some new ideas to increase the range of certificates that will
fall within AMSA’s purview, as articulated in Marine Orders Part 3, Seagoing Qualifications (MO 3). During the first half of 2009 there will be a major review of MO 3, which will seek to better integrate Australian
near-coastal training and certification with the unlimited area maritime qualifications through the use of the AQTF TLISC Maritime Training Package of the Australian education system.
The revision of MO 3 is expected to include consideration of:
Near coastal provisions that take account of the recent NSCV Part D review whilst bringing Australian near-coastal training and qualifications fully within the
flexibilities of STCW, rather than lying outside or below STCW;
Practical means for near-coastal seafarers to graduate to unlimited STCW certificates while ensuring full compliance with STCW standards; and
Maintaining the full STCW status of unlimited certificates without requiring Australian seafarers to satisfy more demanding criteria than other seafarers.
The revision of MO 3 should also provide for as much flexibility as possible between the fishing and trading sectors of the maritime industry and will provide better
opportunities for those working in the fishing industry to gain full STCW-F qualifications.
AMSA hosted another meeting in Canberra in November of key industry representatives to discuss the changes that are being considered for MO 3.
