Observation (CEACR) - adopted 1994, published 81st ILC session (1994)

1. The Committee notes the comments of the National Federation of Maritime Trade Unions (FNSM), which were transmitted in September 1993, concerning the continuation of discrimination in employment on the grounds of the origin of seafarers.

2. The Committee recalls that the comments which the FNSM has been making for many years concern the system for the registration of vessels in the French Southern and Antarctic Territories, which is governed by Decree No. 87-190 and the Order of 20 March 1987. According to this legislation, the proportion of crew members of French nationality may not be less than 25 per cent of the seafarers registered on the crew list, including two to four officers depending on the type of vessel. According to FNSM, this means that 75 per cent of registered crews can be comprised of foreign seafarers engaged under discriminatory conditions, the purpose being to reduce crew costs as far as possible by cutting back on the social conditions of the foreigners so engaged.

3. In its latest comments, the FNSM states that the Government continues to require vessels to be registered in the Kerguelen register. It notes that Decree No. 93-979 and the Order of 4 August 1993 extend the registration of vessels in the French Southern and Antarctic Territories register to nearly all vessels. It criticizes the situation on board vessels registered in the French Southern and Antarctic Territories, which it describes as "rampant apartheid ... under which foreign persons are the victims of racial and social discrimination".

4. The Committee notes that the Government's report has not been received, nor its reply to the recent comments of the FNSM. The Committee is therefore bound once again to draw the Government's attention to the conclusions reached in its 1992 observation and once again requests it to indicate in its next report the measures which have been taken or are contemplated to bring national practice into conformity with section 91 of the Overseas Labour Code and the Convention.