The European Union (EU) Council of Employment and Social Policy Ministers has agreed that seafarers in the EU should be given the same employment protection rights as onshore workers, ITF said in its press release.
Rights to information and consultation, works councils and rights involved in cases of employer insolvency, collective redundancies and transfer of undertakings will now be extended to seafarers, who had previously been excluded from these EU Directives.
A statement from the EU said: "This will not only improve their living and working conditions, it will also level the playing field in Europe's maritime sector."
The obligations would apply to all shipping and fisheries companies in the EU.
Commenting that the agreement was "a very positive outcome", Mark Dickinson, general secretary of the European maritime union Nautilus, hoped for speedy adoption by the European Parliament of the revised rules for seafarers, "which will contribute to promote employment, improved living and working conditions, proper social protection and enhanced dialogue between management and labour".