Background information

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused an unprecedented crisis in the replacement of seagoing crews. At the same time in the assessment of the EU sectoral social partners: the European Transport Workers' Federation ETF and the European Community Shipowners' Associations ECSA, seafarers are the frontline workers of the maritime industry, which carries 90% of world trade, as they play a key role in supplying nations with essential goods. In 2021, this will increasingly include vaccine doses and personal protective equipment. The ETF and ECSA therefore call on EU authorities and governments to ensure that seafarers are recognized as key workers in all EU Member States.

The European Transport Workers’ Federation is a pan-European trade union organisation which embraces transport trade unions from the European Union, the European Economic Area and Central and Eastern European countries. The ETF represents more than 5 million transport workers from more than 200 transport unions and 41 European countries.

The European Community Shipowners’ Associations is the umbrella organisation of the national shipowners’ associations of the EU, the UK and Norway. European shipowners control around 40% of the world’s shipping fleet. ECSA’s prime task is to represent the overall interests of the European shipping industry with the institutions of the European Union.

Content of measure

ETF and ECSA strongly call on EU Member States and EU Institutions to ensure that seafarers and maritime personnel should, in line with the key worker status, continue to be exempted from restrictions being put in place, like quarantine and pre-arrival testing requirements. This to ensure they can travel to and from EU Member States for the purpose of crew changes, shore leave or repatriation.

Social partners stress that even with priority access to vaccinations, it will take some time before all seafarers will be vaccinated. During this period seafarers and maritime personnel should not be subjected to any requirement to have been vaccinated for entry to or travel within the EU. Social partners stressed also that European flag states have a particularly important role to play in leading by example in facilitating crew changes in their ports and supporting their flagged vessels in efforts to undertake crew changes and repatriations globally.

Use of measure

n.a.

Target groups

Workers	Businesses	Citizens
Cross-border commuters Workers in essential services	Sector specific set of companies Companies providing essential services Other businesses	Does not apply to citizens

Actors and funding

Actors	Funding
EU level social partners	No special funding required

Social partners

Social partners' role in designing the measure and form of involvement:

	Trade unions	Employers' organisations
Role	Agreed (outcome) incl. social partner initiative	Agreed (outcome) incl. social partner initiative
Form	Any other form of consultation, institutionalised (as stable working groups or committees) or informal	Any other form of consultation, institutionalised (as stable working groups or committees) or informal

Social partners' role in the implementation, monitoring and assessment phase:

• Social partners jointly
• Main level of involvement: EU level

Involvement

This is a bilateral initiative of EU-level sectoral social partners.

Views and reactions

The social partners support their own initiative.

Sectors and occupations

Sources

• 21 January 2021: EU Member States must enable crew changes to take place without further delays and prioritise seafarers for vaccination (www.etf-europe.org)