Skip to main content
ETF black logo ETF black logo ETF black logo ETF black logo

Google Translate

Implementing Part of the Work Programme Project

News

January 2017

The European Transport Workers’ Federation (ETF) and the European Community Shipowners’ Associations (ECSA) are the EU recognised social partners representing respectively labour and management in the maritime transport sector. 

At the very beginning of the year 2017, ETF and ECSA completed a project to implement some of the points contained in their Sectoral Social Dialogue Committee workplan for 2015-2016. The project had the three following pillars: 

Pillar 1: Negotiation of the amendments to the ILO MLC: the transposition into EU law of the amendments to the Maritime Labour Convention adopted in 2014 in the framework of the International Labour Organisation, through a negotiation between EU social partners on the basis of the provisions of Article 155 TFUE. 

Pillar 2: Guide to apprenticeship and training programmes: an analysis of the existing EU programmes in the field of apprenticeships and training to promote maritime professions, in particular towards youngsters. 

Pillar 3: Report on Health and Safety:  identification of the existing EU legislation on health and safety which applies to maritime transport and the compilation of best practices/initiatives taken by member states and the industry to meet and possibly go beyond regulatory requirements. 

ON THE GROUND

News

Keeping a warming Europe moving: how hot temperatures affect transport workers and what can be done about it

As part of the European continent undergoes its fourth heatwave of 2026, it has become abundantly clear that occupational heat exposure is no longer an exceptional or occasional summer hazard. It is an emergent occupational hazard only destined to escalate. Europe is the second fastest-warming region of the globe after the Arctic. According to EU-OSHA 2025 numbers, one in five workers in the EU signaled exposure to extreme heat at work in the previous 12 months, a figure rising to one in three in some countries.
News

Unruly passengers: more than just summer headlines

Summer may be synonymous with relaxation for holidaymakers and every summer seems to produce its share of eye-catching headlines. Just days ago, The Guardian reported on a drunk British holidaymaker who tried to kiss a flight attendant on a plane and was arrested on his way back through Palma airport. A week earlier, headlines were dominated by reports of a flight from Dublin to Ibiza descending into what was described as "sex and booze chaos," leaving fellow passengers shocked.
News

UK public transport unions sound the alarm over lack of toilet access for drivers

Public transport unions in the United Kingdom are raising urgent concerns about the lack of access to toilet facilities for bus and train drivers, a problem that has persisted for years but is now reaching a breaking point. Reports from across the UK show drivers being forced to work entire shifts without guaranteed access to a toilet, leaving them to rely on improvised or unsafe alternatives, including urinating in bottles in their driving cab. Some unions are now considering industrial action to force employers and authorities to act.