The captain slides a document across the crew mess table and says "sign here, we sail Thursday." It is eleven pages. You are excited and you want to seem easy to work with. This is the single most important piece of paper in your working life, and you are about to sign it without reading it.
What MLC 2006 is
The Maritime Labour Convention, 2006 is an International Labour Organization convention often called the "seafarers' bill of rights". It sets minimum standards for working and living conditions at sea, and it is enforced through the flag state and, in port, through Port State Control inspection. Commercially registered yachts are within its scope.
It covers, among other things: minimum age, recruitment practices, employment agreements, wages, hours of work and rest, leave, repatriation, accommodation, food, medical care, health and safety, and complaints.
The Seafarer Employment Agreement (SEA)
Your contract. You are entitled to a written SEA, signed by both parties, with a copy for you, and to an opportunity to review it before signing.
It should state clearly:
- Your name, the employer's name, and the vessel.
- Wages, how and when paid, and in what currency.
- Leave entitlement (paid annual leave — MLC sets a minimum standard).
- Notice periods for both sides.
- Repatriation entitlement — your right to be sent home at the employer's cost in defined circumstances.
- Medical and health cover.
- Reference to the applicable collective agreement, if there is one.
Beware "self-employed" or "consultant" framings, and cash-in-hand arrangements. They usually strip you of MLC protections.
Rotation and employment patterns
| Pattern | What it means |
|---|---|
| Permanent | You live aboard for the season/year with leave taken between trips. Common for junior crew. |
| Rotational | Two crew share one job — e.g. equal time on and off. Standard for senior crew on large yachts, increasingly offered lower down. |
| Seasonal | A fixed-term contract for one season only. |
| Freelance / daywork | Paid by the day, no long-term commitment. See the daywork lesson. |
Hours of rest
MLC sets minimum hours of rest measured over a 24-hour period and over a 7-day period, with limits on how the rest may be split, and requires that records are kept and signed by the seafarer.
Be precise about the principle rather than quoting figures you half-remember: there is a defined minimum daily rest and a defined minimum weekly rest, the rest may be divided into no more than a small number of periods with one long unbroken period, and the record must be truthful. Check the current requirement against your flag state's guidance and the notice posted aboard.
Onboard Notes
- Take the SEA away and read it. A captain who will not allow that is telling you something important.
- Photograph or scan your signed SEA and keep it off the vessel.
- Falsified rest-hour records are a Port State Control finding and can detain a vessel. You sign them. That signature is yours.
- If your yacht has no complaints procedure, no SEA and no rest records, it is not compliant — and that usually correlates with everything else being wrong too.