I guess I need to differentiate between the domestic workforce and the international workforce, because the worst conditions were endured by international seafarers engaged in global shipping.
I'm an elected representative with the International Transport Workers' Federation based in London, which has an inspectorate around the world that inspects foreign-flag ships when they come into various ports. There are three of those inspectors in Canada.
What occurred when the pandemic came about was.... The maximum allowable under the ILO Maritime Labour Convention for a term on board a ship is 11 months. Because of the pandemic and the various lockdowns that occurred at the beginning, there was an extension of contracts that was agreeable and understandable for a short term, but those extensions ended up going to 17, 18, and up to 20 months, where seafarers were not allowed to get off ships to be repatriated. Not only were they not allowed to be repatriated, but the majority of flag states—countries and ports—refused to allow foreign seafarers to engage in shore leaves and get off their vessels. Many weren't able to access medical services in countries because of lockdowns, so the conditions were really hard.
Here in Canada, our domestic workforce endured a lot of the same, but on a smaller scale. Contracts had to be extended. Terms on board vessels had to be extended and, again, shore leave was denied for many of them.
I have to give credit to Transport Canada and port state control, because they did an effective job at eventually helping those seafarers, especially the foreign seafarers visiting Canadian ports. However, it took too long to get to that stage, so by the time port state control officers were enforcing that maximum period, a lot of these seafarers had been on board for 17 or 18 months. They were forced to sign contract extensions, because they had worked as exploited workers in a lot of these circumstances.
It has been a very difficult condition for workers.