Eurofound's EU PolicyWatch collates information on the responses of government and social partners to the COVID-19 crisis, the war in Ukraine, rising inflation, as well as gathering examples of company practices aimed at mitigating the social and economic impacts.
Factsheet for measure EU-2021-4/1753 – measures in European Union
Country | European Union , applies eu-wide (or beyond) |
Time period | Open ended, started on 21 January 2021 |
Context | COVID-19 |
Type | Non-binding recommendations or other texts |
Category |
Ensuring business continuity and support for essential services
– Smoothing frictions or reallocation of workers |
Author | Eurofound |
Measure added | 02 February 2021 (updated 05 February 2021) |
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.
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.
n.a.
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 | Funding |
---|---|
EU level social partners
|
No special funding required
|
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:
This is a bilateral initiative of EU-level sectoral social partners.
The social partners support their own initiative.
This case is sector-specific
Economic area | Sector (NACE level 2) |
---|---|
H - Transportation And Storage | H50 Water transport |
This case is occupation-specific
Occupation (ISCO level 2) |
---|
Labourers in mining, construction, manufacturing and transport |
Citation
Eurofound (2021), EU sectoral social partners call for the safety of seafarers, measure EU-2021-4/1753 (measures in European Union), EU PolicyWatch, Dublin, https://static.eurofound.europa.eu/covid19db/cases/EU-2021-4_1753.html
19 May 2022
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Disclaimer: This information has not been subject to the full Eurofound evaluation, editorial and publication process.