3.3 Regulation of ships
Subject to limitations following from international law, the proposed Act stipulates that employees working on board ships shall have Norwegian wage and working conditions whenever the ship is in Norwegian ports or internal waters or in the Norwegian territorial sea. The requirement for Norwegian wage and working conditions also applies whenever the ship is in the Norwegian exclusive economic zone or in the waters above the Norwegian continental shelf, provided it is then transporting cargo or passengers between Norwegian ports, or between Norwegian ports and installations on the Norwegian continental shelf.
The regulation of ships is based on Norwegian territorial sovereignty and on the coastal State’s right under customary international law to regulate cabotage. The requirement for Norwegian wage and working conditions applies to all ships, both Norwegian and foreign, thus securing consistent regulation and equal treatment.
The requirement for Norwegian wage and working conditions will not apply on board ships that traverse the Norwegian territorial sea without calling on a Norwegian port or entering Norwegian internal waters, call on a Norwegian port or enter Norwegian territorial waters due to force majeure or distress, or are on their way to or from a foreign port. Nor shall it apply to ships that are in a Norwegian port, if they are coming directly from and sailing directly to a foreign port.
These exemptions from the requirement for Norwegian wage and working conditions take into account limitations in customary international law and in UNCLOS art. 18 (2) on coastal States’ jurisdiction over ships in situations of distress or force majeure, and the right of innocent passage through the territorial sea under UNCLOS art. 17, as well as considerations of international trade.