The Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE) has cited the International Maritime Employers' Committee (IMEC), one of the world’s largest organizations of maritime employers for providing training and opportunities and negotiating actively for Filipino seafarers’ working conditions and welfare.

Labor and Employment Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz said IMEC has invested in training, scholarships and employment for Filipino seafarers, particularly with the Associated Maritime Officers’ and Seamen’s Union of the Philippines and the Philippine Seafarers Union.

Ship owners and ship managers employing some 70,000 Filipino seafarers comprise the IMEC.

In welcoming the appointment of Baldoz as Labor Secretary, IMEC is providing scholarships to over 500 Filipino cadets enrolled at the Maritime Academy of Asia and the Pacific and the University of Cebu. It plans to increase its Filipino scholars to over 1,000 within the next two years.

Baldoz expressed her elation and gratitude to IMEC’s plan to double the number of scholarship to Filipino seafarers, stressing that it augurs well for the long-term goal of President Benigno Aquino III’s platform and policies on labor and employment which is the development of the Filipino human resource.

IMEC’s support to the Filipino seafarers gives a boost to the Aquino administration’s goal of making the Filipino workers more competitive and employable, said Baldoz.

DoLE and the national government are ready to partner with IMEC and other stakeholders in establishing areas of cooperation that would benefit the Filipino seafarers and the maritime industry, Baldoz added.