A stewardess resigns mid-season, in tears, in the crew mess. She wants to fly home tomorrow. The chief stew wants to know if she can be replaced by Friday, the captain wants to know if the yacht is exposed, and you are the person who has to open the file and find out what the yacht actually agreed to.
What MLC 2006 is
The Maritime Labour Convention 2006 is the international framework for seafarer employment: contracts, wages, hours of work and rest, accommodation, food, medical care, repatriation and complaints. It is given force by the flag state, which sets the detail in its own legislation and inspects against it. Yachts above the applicable size and use thresholds are covered; the flag state, the management company and the yacht DPA confirm what applies to your vessel.
The Seafarer Employment Agreement
The SEA is the individual contract between the seafarer and the employer. Every crew member has one, signed before or on joining, with a copy held by the seafarer and a copy onboard.
| SEA content | Purser action |
|---|---|
| Full names of seafarer and employer | Verify the employer entity is correct |
| Capacity and place of work | Match to the crew list and to certificates held |
| Wages, currency, payment frequency | Feed to payroll; keep the payslip trail |
| Paid annual leave entitlement | Track accrual and usage |
| Repatriation entitlement and circumstances | Know it before it is needed |
| Health, social security and medical cover | Hold the policy details |
| Termination, notice and complaints procedure | Follow it exactly when it is used |
Wages and records
Wages are paid at regular intervals with a written account (payslip) given to the seafarer showing the amount, deductions and exchange rate applied. Unauthorised deductions are not permitted. Payroll may be run by the yacht, the management company or a crew employment company; the purser is usually the collector of the data and the checker of the output, not the payer.
Hours of rest
MLC and STCW set minimum rest periods and require records of daily hours of rest to be maintained, signed by the seafarer and by the master or an authorised person. The exact minima, how they may be divided, and any permitted exceptions are set by the flag state implementation and the yacht SMS — check those rather than relying on a remembered number.
- Records must reflect reality. Falsified rest hour records are a serious finding at a port state inspection and a serious ethical failure.
- Non-conformities happen on busy charters. The correct response is to record them, report them to the captain, and address the manning cause.
Repatriation, medical and complaints
Seafarers have a right to repatriation in defined circumstances, at no cost to them, with financial security in place. There must be an onboard complaints procedure which crew can use without victimisation, with an escalation route ashore to the employer and the flag state. The purser keeps these documents accessible, not buried.
Onboard Notes
- Never let a crew member work without a signed SEA in place. It is a straightforward inspection failure and it leaves the crew member unprotected.
- Keep a single, dated master file per crew member. Scattered documents are how yachts fail crew inspections.
- This is not legal advice. Employment disputes go to the management company and its advisers immediately, and the purser stops giving opinions and starts keeping records.