The document discusses the responsibilities and procedures for companies licensed by the Indian government to recruit and place seafarers. Key points: 1) Companies must obtain a Recruitment and Placement Services License (RPSL) which is mandated by the Directorate General of Shipping. The RPSL license regulates recruiters and protects seafarers' rights. 2) RPSL companies must follow procedures for audits, reporting, record-keeping and financial guarantees to ensure fair recruitment and protection of seafarers. 3) While the digitization of processes has improved the system, some challenges remain like delays, discrepancies and technical issues that impact seafarers' careers and mobility.

1. RESPONSIBILITY
OF STAKE
HOLDERS UNDER
MLC 2006-
RPS COMPANY
VIEW POINT

2. RPSL COMPANY
VIEW POINT
 M.S. (Recruitment and Placement of Seafarers) Rules,
2005 have been in effect since 18th March, 2005.
Rules-8 of these Rules requires that a person,
company, institution, agency or other organization in
the public or private sector which is engaged in
recruiting seafarers on behalf of employers or placing
seafarers with employers, may obtain a license to do
so on or before 31 December, 2006.
In India
Merchant shipping (recruitment
and placement of seafarers
)rules 2005

3. RPS COMPANY
VIEW POINT
 RPSL stands for -Recruitment and Placement Services
License –
 It is mandated by the Directorate General of Shipping
in India for authorized recruiters and agents to have a
RPSL LICENSE . Recruitment & Placement Services
Regulations issued by the Govt of India and enforced
under the Indian Merchant Shipping Act, provides a
mechanism for the protection of rights of Indian
seafarers working on Indian and foreign vessels along
with the vital guarantees of their repatriation in the
case of their being stranded or during such other
exigencies, even when the shipowner fails to discharge
the duty of repatriating the seafarers to the home port
of the seaman.
In India
Merchant shipping (recruitment
and placement of seafarers
)rules 2005

4. RPS COMPANY
VIEW POINT
 Merchant Shipping Notice no 6 of 2018 provides a
detail description of the procedures to be followed by
RPSL companies .
 The procedures can be viewed on line under
WWW.dgshipping.gov.in and are easy to understand
and step by step procedures are provided for
companies which apply for RPSL licenses
 Procedures are provided for Initial audit ,annual Audit
,Renewal audit, Name change ,Address change
.Validity of license is 05 years .
 Inspections are completed by Regional Organisation
namely classification societies appointed by DG
shipping for completion of the audit.
In India
Merchant shipping (recruitment
and placement of seafarers
)rules 2005

5. RPS COMPANY
VIEW POINT
 Once the audit is complete and RPSL license issued
the company functions as a licensed RPS company
.The RPSL license has to be displayed at a prominent
place in the respective office which can be viewed by
all .
In India
Merchant shipping (recruitment
and placement of seafarers
)rules 2005

6. RPSL COMPANY
VIEW POINT
 Ensures that seafarers recruited or placed by RPS
approved companies are informed of their rights and
duties under the employment agreement prior to the
process of engagement and arrangement are provided
for seafarers to have a copy of the agreement namely
SEA / SEC as per applicable CBA.
 RPSL companies to provide bank guarantee basis on
the number of seafarers employed .The bank
guarantee to be used in case seafarers are denied their
rights as per applicable CBA
 Ensure that no fees or other charges is borne directly
by seafarer other than cost of obtaining ,seafarers
book ,passport or other similar documents .
Salient features

7. RPSL COMPANY
VIEW POINT
 Ensure that any incident or causality on board causing
death ,disappearance ,loss overboard or homicide by
or an Indian National is reported to DG shipping on
line via DG comm centre working 24X7 in the
prescribed format Form II .This initial causality
reporting to be completed within 48 hours .
 Maintain right to privacy of seafarers personal Data
information including medical details.
 To display at a prominent location that no fees will be
charged from seafarers for their on board placement
and no seafarer will be victimised .
Salient features.

8. RPSL COMPANY
VIEW POINT
 The RPSL companies shall furnish a monthly report in
form 1 by the 12th of every month in the manner
specified by DG shipping . (replaced by e-governance )
 The RPSL company shall include its license numbers
with date of issue and expiry in all its communication
and advertisements .
 The RPSL company for promoting welfare of seafarers
pay an amount equivalent to 6000 Rupees per seafarer
per annum for seafarers excluding trainees.
 The payment shall be made by the 15 day of the
month following the end of every quarter .
Salient features

9. RPS COMPANY
VIEW POINT
 With the introduction of emigration system in 2018 -
No seafarer can depart Indian immigration if his
departure data is not visible at the immigration desk
.Such rights are provided only to RPSL companies to
avoid Human Trafficking /Slavery at sea.
 Upon seafarer boarding vessel ,within 7 days upon
sign on the vessel the sign on details to be entered in
DG shipping website by the RPS company .
 Upon sign off from the vessel within 7 days his sign off
details to be entered in DG shipping website .
 Once arrived India arrival India details to be entered in
DG shipping website.
SALIENT FEATURES

10. RPS COMPANY
VIEW POINT
 Seafarers must check their Master Checker data by
visiting http://dgshipping.gov.in and check the e-
governance section. Update your Passport number
and e-mail id. It is in this email id that Seafarers get
alert when RPSL Agencies update e-governance .
 If the seafarers data is incorrect in the master checker
he may be denied permission from immigration to
travel out of India.
Salient features.

11. RPSL COMPANY
VIEW POINT
 Falsified sea time certificate cannot be presented for
COC as same is verified against form I .
 Seafarers have no choice but to be recruited only by
RPSL companies to ensure that they qualify for higher
grade COC examination .
Salient features

12. RPS COMPANY
VIEW POINT
 Undue excess time taken when a change of name of
the company is initiated as the entire process similar
to an initial audit .
 Instead the name change process audit can be
combined with the annual audit which saves time and
cost .
 The notification process for audit the time line can be
increased to six months instead of the three month
window period to avoid companies losing their RPS
license in case of delays in the system process.
DRAWBACKS

13. RPS COMPANY
VIEW POINT
 Our company name has been changed. Application for
Name change inspection has been raised and audit
conducted by LRQA on 17th July 2019. Subsequent
report has already been submitted to SEO by LRQA.
And same has been approved by the SEO . However,
due to technical challenges the said change is not
reflecting in our company profile. We are in
communication with SEO and understand this issue
has already put forward to DG Shipping however
process is stuck some where . (see next slide –screen
shot)
DRAWBACKS

14. RPS COMPANY
VIEW POINT
DRAWBACKS.

15. RPS COMPANY
VIEW POINT
 DG approved colleges are being derecognised due to
failure to follow DG guidelines .When a RPS company
is applying for a flag state documentation of seafarer
the flag state document application is rejected if the
institute is not on the latest approved list of colleges in
DG website .
 In the Master checker against individual seafarer it
shows the STCW certificate is valid .
 Suggest we introduce a system where the STCW
certificates has a unique code generated by DG
Shipping instead of individual institutes generating
their certificates which gives more authenticity to the
STCW Certificates .
Drawbacks

16. RPS COMPANY
VIEW POINT
 In e-migration system when uploading seafarer's data
at times there is human error in entry .
 For change of rank/error correction , a bank draft of Rs
250 to be made and submitted in SEO along with the
applicable documents .
 No set time frame to reply from SEO /DG for
applications sent for correction in form I. Total 20
applications for correction in form I has been sent in
year 2019 (01-01-2019 to 30-07-2019) out of which
one has been rectified on the form I.
 If a seafarer has to apply for his COC examination,
then seafarer has to wait until correction is initiated .
Drawbacks.

17. RPS COMPANY
VIEW POINT
 Seafarer’s INDOS no was deactivated due to his STCW
certificate being cancelled . Understand from one of
our seafarers that his INDOS has activated again since
he has submitted required revised documents to DG
Shipping. However, we are still unable to emigrate him
on e-governance platform stating that “INDOS
No.:01XL1341 has been temporary deactivated for
verification of certificates”. His joining formalities
cannot be completed without confirmation of
emigration details.
 He visited DG shipping office and was told to wait
indefinitely.
DRAWBACKS.

18. RPSL COMPANY
VIEW POINT
DRAWBACKS

19. RPSL COMPANY
VIEW POINT  Appreciate recent changes in issuing of COP. However,
we have observed discrepancy in the regulation :
 Regulation for Basic Training for Liquified Gas Tanker
Cargo Operations showing as Regulation V/1-1(oil and
chemical tanker) whereas it should be Regulation V/1-2
Drawbacks.

20. RPS COMPANY
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Drawbacks

21. RPSL COMPANY
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 Newly incorporated option Suspended Seafarers list in
company profile takes more than 2 mins to show list
of seafarers or sometimes display 504 Gateway Time-
out error.
 see pics next slide .
Drawbacks

22. RPSL COMPANY
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Drawbacks

23. RPSL COMPANY
VIEW POINT  The Digitisation process carried out by DG Shipping
has helped leaps and bounds in improving the system
.
 With the reduction in human interface the system is
easy to operate .
 Overall as a RPSL license company we are satisfied
with the system in place .
Final Observations

24. RPSL COMPANY
VIEW POINTS
Thank you for your patience
and attention .