High-risk areas have been extended in response to increased pirate attacks and kidnappings.

Nautilus International Reports The new list of designated risk areas covered by the International Bargaining Forum (IBF) and International Maritime Employers’ Contract (IMEC) collective bargaining agreements (CBAs), takes effect from 1 November 2020.

They cover a new extended risk zone in the Gulf of Guinea between the Ivory Coast and the Congo/Angola boarder, and a new extended risk zone into the Arabian Sea for the western part of the Indian Ocean.

Existing high-risk areas remain in place.

Gulf of Guinea

Designation 5 with Chart 5

In addition to the existing High Risk Area in the territorial waters of Nigeria and Benin, a new Extended Risk Zone has been designated to cover a substantially larger area in the Gulf between Liberia and Angola.

Seafarer entitlements for the new Extended Risk Zone in this Designation 5 area include:

• bonus equal to basic wage, payable only on the day the vessel is attacked
• doubled compensations for death and disability if occur on the day the vessel is attacked
• increased Best Management Practice (BMP) level

Seafarers transiting in the existing high risk area (Designation 4) closer within the territorial waters, continue to be entitled to:

• bonus equal to basic wage, payable for the actual duration of stay / transit
• doubled compensations for death and disability
• the right to refuse sailing, with repatriation at company’s cost (by submitting respective notice)
• increased security requirements

Indian Ocean 

Designation 2 with Chart 2b

Coordinates have also been amended for the High Risk Area off Somalia’s coast and an enlargement of the Extended Risk Zone in the Arabian Sea.

It includes the West Indian Ocean and the Red Sea up to the Yemen/Saudi Arabia border including the Maritime Security Transit Corridor (MSTC) in the Red Sea, but excluding the Warlike Operations Areas and the designated High Risk Areas of 1 and 2a.

• bonus equal to basic wage, payable only on the day the vessel is attacked
• doubled compensations for death and disability if occur on the day the vessel is attacked
• increased BMP level

The IBF was established in 2003 as the mechanism by which maritime employers, represented by the Joint Negotiating Group (JNG), and seafarers unions, represented by the ITF, could negotiate over the wages and conditions of employment of seafarers serving on ships to which ITF Special Agreements apply.