Smartphone app to check if ships masters are breaking UN labour rules

LLOYD's Register and the UK P&I Club have developed the UN's International Labour Organisation's (ILO) Maritime Labour Convention (MLC) Pocket Checklist as a smartphone application to reduce the risk of ship detentions.

The United Nations ILO's Maritime Labour Convention (MLC) to ensure that seafarers experience a minimum standard in working and living conditions will come into force August 2013, said the press release.

The Lloyd's Pocket Checklist app serves as an interactive tool that enables ships' crews and their managers to view the requirements of the ILO rules and check off required duties as they are completed to be UN-compliant.

The app is free and available for iPhone, iPad, Android devices, Windows phone and BlackBerry devices. Lloyd's Register has now produced six pocket checklists in a series that address regulatory compliance requirements.

Said UK P&I Club director Karl Lumbers: "The MLC represents a significant change to the regulation, Masters and senior officers will need support. We believe this pocket guide will help those at the sharp end enormously."