For many years, seafarers’ welfare and their rights have been a fundamental matter for consideration and debated in the maritime community leading to the enactment and adoption of the Maritime Labor Convention (MLC), 2006. The MLC, 2006 known to be the “seafarers’ bill of rights” is the global 4th pillar of the international regulatory regime for quality shipping. The convention sees that every seafarer has the right to a safe and secure workplace that complies with safety standards, to include fair terms of employment, decent working and living conditions on board ship, health protection, medical care, welfare measures, and other forms of social protection (Labour Standard, n.d.). As of December 2020, 97 countries have ratified the convention, which resulted in more than 91% of the world’s shipping fleet being regulated (ILO, n.d.).

The study completed in 2021 is a descriptive quantitative research. It aims to determine the status of compliance to the Maritime Labor Convention (MLC), 2006 by the Philippine domestic maritime industry. Data were drawn from 1) vessel inspection reports from 2016-2018 conducted by the Labor Inspectors of the eight (8) DOLE Regional Offices; 2) interviews conducted in Cebu with Regional Directors of DOLE and MARINA Regional Office 7 and Labor Inspectors as well as with the representative(s) of identified domestic shipping companies; and 3) surveys administered at NMP to seafarers boarding interisland ship.

The study is significant as this will serve as guide to Regulatory and Implementing Government Agencies on what are the concerns of the shipping companies and challenges in the implementation of MLC, 2006 in the domestic shipping industry that still needs to be looked into and addressed.