MERCHANT SHIPPING (INTERNATIONAL LABOUR CONVENTIONS) ACT, 1933

AN ACT TO GIVE EFFECT TO DRAFT CONVENTIONS ADOPTED BY THE GENERAL CONFERENCE OF THE INTERNATIONAL LABOUR ORGANISATION OF THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS RELATING RESPECTIVELY TO UNEMPLOYMENT INDEMNITY IN CASE OF LOSS OR FOUNDERING OF THE SHIP, THE MINIMUM AGE FOR THE ADMISSION OF YOUNG PERSONS TO EMPLOYMENT AS TRIMMERS OR STOKERS, AND THE COMPULSORY MEDICAL EXAMINATION OF CHILDREN AND YOUNG PERSONS EMPLOYED AT SEA, AND TO AMEND THE MERCHANT SHIPPING ACTS, 1894 TO 1932, IN SO FAR AS IS NECESSARY TO GIVE EFFECT TO THE SAID CONVENTIONS. [22nd August, 1933.]

BE IT ENACTED BY THE OIREACHTAS OF SAORSTÁT EIREANN AS FOLLOWS:—

1 Amendment of Section 158 of Merchant Shipping Act, 1894.

1.—(1) Where by reason of the wreck or loss of a ship on which a seaman is employed his service terminates before the date contemplated in the agreement, he shall, notwithstanding anything in section 158 of the Merchant Shipping Act, 1894, but subject to the provisions of this section, be entitled in respect of each day on which he is in fact unemployed during a period of two months from the date of the termination of the service, to receive wages at the rate to which he was entitled at that date.

• (2) A seaman shall not be entitled to receive wages under this section if the owner shows that the unemployment was not due to the wreck or loss of the ship and shall not be entitled to receive wages under this section in respect of any day if the owner shows that the seaman was able to obtain suitable employment on that day.

• (3) In this section the expression “seaman” includes every person employed or engaged in any capacity on board any ship, but, in the case of a ship which is a fishing boat, does not include any person who is entitled to be remunerated only by a share in the profits or the gross earnings of the working of the boat.

• (4) This section shall have and be deemed to have had effect as from the fifth day of July, 1930.

2 Employment of young persons as trimmers or stokers.

2.—(1) Subject to the provisions of this section, no young person shall be employed on work as a trimmer or stoker in any ship:

Provided that—

• (a) the foregoing provision shall not apply—

• (i) to the employment of a young person on such work as aforesaid in a school-ship or training-ship if the work is of a kind approved by the Minister for Industry and Commerce and is carried on subject to supervision by officers of the said Minister; or

• (ii) to the employment of a young person on such work as aforesaid in a ship which is mainly propelled otherwise than by means of steam; or

• (iii) to the employment of a young person subject to and in accordance with the provisions contained in paragraph (c) of Article 3 of the draft convention relating to the minimum age for the admission of young persons to employment as trimmers or stokers adopted by the General Conference of the International Labour Organisation of the League of Nations and containing as well as other articles the articles set out in the Schedule to this Act; and

• (b) where in any port a trimmer or stoker is required for any ship and no person over the age of eighteen years is available to fill the place, a young person over the age of sixteen years may be employed as trimmer or stoker, but in any such case two young persons over the age of sixteen years shall be employed to do the work which would otherwise have been performed by one person over the age of eighteen years.

• (2) There shall be included in every agreement with the crew a list of the young persons who are members of the crew, together with particulars of the dates of their birth, and, in the case of a ship in which there is no such agreement, the master of the ship shall, if young persons are employed thereon, keep a register of those persons with particulars of the dates of their birth and of the dates on which they become or cease to be members of the crew.

• (3) There shall be included in every agreement with the crew a short summary of the provisions of this section.

3 Medical examination of young persons.

3.—(1) Subject to the provisions of this section, no young person shall be employed in any capacity in any ship, unless there has been delivered to the master of the ship a certificate granted by a duly qualified medical practitioner certifying that the young person is fit to be employed in that capacity:

Provided that—

• (a) the foregoing provisions shall not apply to the employment of a young person in a ship in which only members of the same family are employed; and

• (b) the competent authority may on the ground of urgency authorise a young person to be employed in a ship notwithstanding that no such certificate as aforesaid has been delivered to the master of the ship, but a young person in whose case any such authorisation is given shall not be employed beyond the first port at which the ship calls after the young person embarks thereon, except subject to and in accordance with the foregoing provisions of this section.

• (2) A certificate under this section shall remain in force for a period of twelve months from the date on which it is granted and no longer:

Provided that, if the said period of twelve months expires at some time during the course of the voyage of the ship in which the young person is employed, the certificate shall remain in force until the end of the voyage.

• (3) In this section the expression “the competent authority” means a superintendent of mercantile marine or a consular officer in the service of Saorstát Eireann or any other person recognised by the Minister for Industry and Commerce to be competent to give the authority mentioned in paragraph (b) of sub-section (1) of this section.

4 Penalties.

4.—(1) If any young person is employed in any ship in contravention of the provisions of this Act, the master of the ship shall be liable to a fine not exceeding forty shillings, or, in the case of a second or subsequent offence, not exceeding five pounds. and where a young person is taken into employment in any ship in contravention of the provisions of this Act on the production by, or with the privity of, the parent of a false or forged certificate or on a false representation by the parent that the young person is of an age at which such employment is not in contravention of the said provisions, that parent shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding forty shillings.

• (2) If the master of a ship fails to keep such a register as is required to be kept by him under this Act, or, on being so required by an officer of the Minister for Industry and Commerce or any other person having power to enforce compliance with the provisions of the Merchant Shipping Acts, 1894 to 1932, refuses or neglects to produce for inspection by that officer or person any such register as aforesaid or any certificate delivered to him under this Act, he shall be liable to a fine not exceeding twenty pounds.

5 Definitions.

5.—In this Act—

the expression “young person” means a person who is under the age of eighteen years;

the expression “ship” means any sea-going ship or boat of any description which is registered in Saorstát Eireann, and includes any fishing boat entered in the fishing boat register in Saorstát Eireann, but does not include any tug, dredger, sludge vessel, barge, or other craft whose ordinary course of navigation does not extend beyond the seaward limits of the jurisdiction of the harbour authority of the port at which such vessel is regularly employed, if and so long as such vessel is engaged in her ordinary occupation.

6 Short title and construction.

6.—(1) This Act may be cited as the Merchant Shipping (International Labour Conventions) Act, 1933.

• (2) This Act shall be construed as one with the Merchant Shipping Acts, 1894 to 1932, and those Acts and this Act may be cited together as the Merchant Shipping Acts, 1894 to 1933.

SCHEDULE.

Article 2.

Young persons under the age of eighteen years shall not be employed on work on vessels as trimmers or stokers.

Article 3.

The provisions of Article 2 shall not apply:—

• (a) To work done by young persons on school-ships or training-ships, provided that such work is approved and supervised by public authority;

• (b) To the employment of young persons on vessels mainly propelled by other means than steam;

• (c) To young persons of not less than sixteen years of age, who, if found physically fit after medical examination, may be employed as trimmers or stokers on vessels exclusively engaged in the coastal trade of India and of Japan, subject to regulations made after consultation with the most representative organisations of employers and workers in those countries.