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AUS-M500-Y-L4.4

Crew management and the MLC

The **Maritime Labour Convention** is often called the fourth pillar of maritime regulation, alongside SOLAS, MARPOL and STCW. It sets minimum standards for the conditions in which seafarers work and live, and it applies to commercial yachts with the same force as to any other ship.

Entry & progression

The last lesson, and the one that will consume most of your time in command. The vessel is not the hard part. The people are.

What the MLC covers

  • Minimum requirements to work on a ship — minimum age, medical fitness, training, recruitment and placement.
  • Conditions of employment — the seafarer employment agreement, wages, hours of work and rest, leave, repatriation, manning levels.
  • Accommodation, recreational facilities, food and catering.
  • Health protection, medical care, welfare and social security protection.
  • Compliance and enforcement — inspection, certification and the complaint procedures.

The employment agreement

Every seafarer must have a seafarer employment agreement — a written contract, signed by both parties, which the seafarer has had an opportunity to review and seek advice on before signing, and of which they hold an original. A handshake and a WhatsApp message about a day rate is not an SEA. It is common on yachts anyway, and it is a straightforward MLC deficiency.

Hours of rest — and why it is a safety issue

Both STCW and the MLC set minimum hours of rest: a minimum in any 24-hour period and a minimum across any 7-day period, with limits on how the rest may be split and how long the interval between rest periods may be. Records must be kept for every seafarer, every day, and the seafarer must receive a copy.

CAUTION — Confirm the applicable hours-of-rest figures and the Australian instrument The rest-hour minima are set by the STCW Code and the MLC and given effect through the national law of the flag state — for a regulated Australian vessel, through AMSA's Marine Orders. The specific figures and the exceptions and exemptions that may apply are not in the verified fact base this course was built from, and this course will not state them. Obtain them from AMSA and from your flag state, and check them against the vessel's SMS. Verify at amsa.gov.au.

The point of the rules is not the paperwork. Fatigue is a cause of casualties, and on a busy charter yacht it is the normal condition of the crew. Guests to bed at 0300, tender operations at 0700, a passage overnight, and a stewardess who has done nineteen days without a full night. That crew will make a mistake, and it will be a good crew making it.

WARNING — Rest-hour records that do not reconcile A port state control officer compares the rest-hour records against the deck log, the drill records, the guest movements and the bridge watch bill. If the records say a mate was resting at 0200 and the deck log shows them keeping a watch, the records are false — and false records are worse than admitted non-compliance. Record what happened. If what happened is not lawful, that is a manning problem for the Company, and you must say so.

The master's duty of care

It is broader than the convention. Yacht crew are young, live where they work, and have no distance from the job. Bullying, harassment, sexual misconduct and alcohol are real and recurrent problems in this industry, and the master sets the standard by what they tolerate.

You will be the person the crew come to, and the person they should be able to come to. That is not a soft skill appended to the job. On a yacht it is most of the job.

Command is not the vessel. It is what happens to the people in it.

Practice questions

5 questions
recallcore

recall · core

The Maritime Labour Convention is commonly described as: (a) A voluntary industry code (b) The fourth pillar of maritime regulation, alongside SOLAS, MARPOL and STCW (c) An annex to the STCW Convention (d) Applicable only to vessels over 3000 GT

recallcore

recall · core

A seafarer employment agreement must be: (a) Filed with the flag state before the seafarer joins (b) Signed by the master on the Company's behalf only (c) In writing, signed by both parties, with an original held by the seafarer (d) Renewed at the start of every charter

recallcore

recall · core

This course does not state the specific minimum hours of rest because: (a) Hours of rest are not regulated on yachts (b) The figures are set by the vessel's SMS alone (c) The MLC leaves the matter entirely to the Company (d) The figures are not in the verified fact base, and must be obtained from AMSA and the flag state

recallcore

recall · core

A port state control officer will most usefully verify rest-hour records by: (a) Comparing them against the deck log, drill records, guest movements and watch bill (b) Asking the master whether the crew are rested (c) Reviewing the seafarer employment agreements (d) Checking the vessel's minimum safe manning document

recallcore

recall · core

Where the true record of hours worked would show non-compliance, the master should: (a) Adjust the records to show compliance and raise manning at the next review (b) Record what actually happened, and report the manning problem to the Company (c) Omit the records for the affected period (d) Have the crew sign the records as correct regardless

AI-drafted catalogue content pending SME review. Sea service and course requirements change; verify with AMSA before relying on this for a career decision.

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