Under a bill presented in March 1998, Sweden will change its legislation on working time on board merchant vessels in order to implement two conventions adopted by the International Labour Organisation and the International Maritime Organisation. Trade unions are opposed to the proposed changes, but the bill is expected to be adopted by Parliament.
Currently, Sweden's Act on Seamen's Hours of Work regulates working hours at sea. Average working time must not exceed 40 hours a week, but a seafarer can have as many as 56 working hours scheduled per week. This is compensated for by longer periods of free time ashore. The only provision on rest hours is that the seafarer is entitled to a rest of "sufficient length" in every 24-hour period.
In March 1998, the Government presented a bill in order to bring Swedish legislation into line with two international conventions, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) Convention no.180 on seafarers' hours of work and the manning of ships, adopted in 1996, and the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) Convention on standards of training, certification and watchkeeping for seafarers (STCW), which was revised in 1995. The first gives member states the option between regulating the working hours or the rest periods for seafarers, but the IMO convention makes the regulation of rest hours of watchkeeping seafarers compulsory.
Thus the Government proposes that, with effect from 1 October 1998, the Act on Seamen's Hours of Work is replaced by an Act on Seafarers' Hours of Rest. The law would apply to all civilian commercial vessels except fishing boats and rescue vessels and to all officers and crew.
The proposed law stipulates rest periods of no less than 10 hours in every 24-hour period, and at least 77 hours during every seven-day period. The rest may be divided into two periods at the most, but one of those periods has to be at least six hours. The time between the two rest periods shall not exceed 14 hours. Non-watchkeeping members of the crew can be exempted from these rules through agreements with a national trade union.
The master of the ship can always require a seafarer to perform any hours of work necessary for the immediate safety of the ship, of persons on board or of the cargo or for the purpose of giving assistance to other ships or persons in distress at sea.
The Swedish Engineer Officers' Union (Svenska Maskinbefälsförbundet, SMBF) and the Swedish Ship Officers' Association (Sveriges Fartygsbefälsförening, SFBF) are opposed to the new law. "It is a minimum regulation," says Christer Themner, general secretary of SMBF. Together with the blue-collar Union of Service and Communication, Seafarers' Branch (SEKO Sjöfolk) the two unions are also opposed to the proposal that in the future the unions will not be consulted by the Swedish Maritime Board (Sjöfartsverket) before it decides on the minimum crew levels of a vessel. The bill is expected to be adopted by Parliament.