A WEB page enabling workers to gain rapid access to essential information about their health and safety rights and responsibilities has been set up by the Health and Safety Executive.

The "workers’ webpage" http://www.hse.gov.uk/ workers
- covers the roles and responsibilities of employers and employees, as well as issues such as ‘whistle-blowing’ and reporting accidents.

Threatened by displacements by much-cheaper seafarers from other countries and beleaguered by substandard education and training, the advantage of Pinoy seafarers has been dramatically eroded; will the government, that profits from its huge dollar remittances, now genuinely come to their aid?

NEVER in the history of Filipino seafarers have they been confronted with a storm they cannot survive nor a problem they cannot surmount. 

Reeling in the rush to beat the deadline for compliance to the Standard of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping Convention, as amended in 1995, they are also meeting head on the challenge of wholesale displacement by an equally-trained but cheaper Chinese crew that made its presence in the international market for seafarers barely five years ago.
FULL STORY >> 

REAL THREATS

‘With so many schools in the country, the best maritime instructors are thinly spread, leaving very few schools with excellent teaching staff’

FOR more than a decade now, the Philippines is considered the manning capital of the world, enjoying a steady 20 percent share in the world’s crewing picture. More than the flattering tag, Filipino seafarers have been known by their peers and by the shipowners as hardworking and outstanding men o’ the sea.

In recent years, however, maritime disasters involving Filipino seafarers, both here and in international waters, have threatened to erode this enviable status. Moreover, the threat of replacement posed by developing countries, particularly Red China, became real and began to stymie every move or plan to post an increase in deployment.
FULL STORY  >>

PINOYS TOP COMPETENCY APPRAISAL IN BELGIUM AND THE NETHERLANDS

PIRATE attacks in the Malacca Strait fell dramatically last year, thanks to increased patrolling by police, particularly from Malaysia, according to the International Maritime Bureau.

The IMB’s annual report says only 17 attacks were reported, against 75 in the previous year. However, the news is not so good in neighboring Indonesia which continues to record the highest number of attacks – 91 last year. India and Bangladesh were next in line, with 27 and 25 assaults, respectively.

The worldwide total for last year was 335. While the figure was down from the peak of 469 recorded the previous year, the IMB says that the trend since it began collecting statistic more than a decade ago is still “firmly upwards.”
FULL STORY >>

‘SOUTHERN BUNCH’ SHINES
... in first ‘Maritime Battle of the Brains’

IF you think that game shows only make raves and waves through television, you’ve got it all wrong!

During the recent Migrant Workers Week, held at the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration grounds, a one-of-a-kind and first-ever game show not only caused waves and raves but rippled for days and was the talking-fare of many seafarers for a long, long time even when they have boarded their ships. The game is called the “Maritime Students Battle of the Brains,” a brainchild of UFS president Nelson P. Ramirez and Sigaw ng Marino anchor Joey Dizon.
FULL STORY  >>
 

Two views of globalization
By FR. REY ROQUE
Port of Davao

You can now join or start any discussion on seafarer's issues anytime or anywhere you are with
Usapang Marino
(Seafarer's Forum)
at URL: http://www.ufs.ph/discus