China ratifies 2006 Maritime Labor Convention

China's top legislature on Saturday ratified the 2006 Maritime Labor Convention (MLC), which aims at protecting the rights and interests of maritime workers as well as fair competition in the global shipping industry.

Announcing the ratification at the close of its bi-monthly session, the National People's Congress Standing Committee stressed that, under the convention, maritime workers must be offered old-age, medical, work-related injury, unemployment and child-birth insurance in China.

The 2006 MLC does not apply to the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) and the Macao SAR for the time being, it said.

The 2006 MLC, passed by the International Labor Organization in 2006, came into force on Aug. 20, 2013. As of March 25, 2015, 66 countries had sanctioned the convention.