The International Maritime Employers Committee (IMEC) is an employers organisation based in London. IMEC represents over 100 companies located all over the world that operate over 5,500 ships and employ over 145,000 seafarers of all nationalities. The members are individual shipping companies, both owners and managers, large and small, operating all types of ships, including dry bulk, container, cruise liners, livestock carriers, reefers and tankers. The ships they operate are registered in more than 40 different countries.

IMEC was established more than fifty years ago by shipowners employing seafarers from the Indian Sub-Continent. IMEC members helped establish the Indian National Maritime Board which regulates wages and conditions for seafarers from that country, and similar bodies in Pakistan and Bangladesh, and for many years IMEC representatives participated in these negotiations.

However, more recently IMEC members interests and activities expanded to cover a wider range of labour supplying countries and to the negotiation of international wage rates as well as those applying to national flag.

IMEC co-ordinates the views of its members in negotiations over the wages and conditions of employment of seafarers serving on the ships they operate. These negotiations often involve the International Transport Workers Federation (ITF), a major global organisation representing seafarers national trade unions, as well as with the individual unions in countries such as the Philippines, India, Sri Lanka, Poland and Russia.

Apart from pay negotiations, IMEC also keeps Members advised on general manpower issues, including developments at the International Labour Organization, and on legal issues affecting seafarers employment.

In addition, IMEC established the International Maritime Training Trust (IMTT) in 1998 to administer training funds included in various IMEC collective agreements in order to upgrade training facilities around the world. IMTT provides training grants of over $1 million each year and, in 2006 sponsored 30 cadets from the Maritime Academy of Asia and the Pacific in the Philippines who commenced training with IMEC Members.

IMEC membership has increased rapidly and trebled in the period 2,001 to 2,004. It is likely to increase further during the course of the next few years.