What the abandonment financial security pays and the three routes into abandonment (MLC Standard A2.5.2)

Say a ship has been tied up in a foreign port for two months. Wages have stopped coming, the shipowner cannot be reached, and provisions and fresh water are running down. Whether this is abandonment as the Convention uses the word, and if it is, who pays for what, is the immediate question for the crew.

MLC, 2006 Regulation 2.5, paragraph 2 requires each Member to make ships flying its flag provide financial security. How that security works is set by Standard A2.5.2.

The provision runs two lists. One decides whether there is abandonment, the other is what the security actually pays. The two overlap without being the same.

Abandonment splits three ways and one branch is enough

2. For the purposes of this Standard, a seafarer shall be deemed to have been abandoned where, in violation of the requirements of this Convention or the terms of the seafarers’ employment agreement, the shipowner: (a) fails to cover the cost of the seafarer’s repatriation; or (b) has left the seafarer without the necessary maintenance and support; or (c) has otherwise unilaterally severed their ties with the seafarer including failure to pay contractual wages for a period of at least two months.

The three branches are joined by or. Failing to cover the cost of repatriation, leaving the seafarer without the necessary maintenance and support, or unilaterally severing the ties. Any one of them is abandonment.

Reading the third branch as a two month rule narrows it. What (c) covers is the unilateral severing of ties, and failure to pay contractual wages for at least two months is written into it as an instance (including). Abandonment can be made out under (a) or (b) before the two months are up.

The opening words add one more condition. There has to be a violation of the requirements of the Convention or of the terms of the employment agreement. A ship that is paying under the agreement and arranging repatriation falls into none of the three branches.

Whether support has stopped is read off five items

5. For the purposes of paragraph 2(b) of this Standard, necessary maintenance and support of seafarers shall include: adequate food, accommodation, drinking water supplies, essential fuel for survival on board the ship and necessary medical care.

necessary maintenance and support in (b) reads like a judgement call, but the provision attaches a list. Adequate food, accommodation, drinking water, the fuel needed to survive on board, and necessary medical care. The fuel meant here is not the fuel that keeps the voyage going, it is the fuel that keeps people alive on board.

This list decides whether there is abandonment. What the security pays comes later and separately.

Wages paid by the security are cut off at four months

(a) outstanding wages and other entitlements due from the shipowner to the seafarer under their employment agreement, the relevant collective bargaining agreement or the national law of the flag State, limited to four months of any such outstanding wages and four months of any such outstanding entitlements;

Two months and four months do different jobs. Two months is the threshold that opens the test under (c), and four months is the ceiling on the wages the security pays.

The ceiling comes in two parts. Four months of outstanding wages, and four months of other outstanding entitlements. It is not four months for the two together.

What counts as outstanding wages comes from three places. The employment agreement, the relevant collective bargaining agreement, and the national law of the flag State. The figure moves depending on which one is used.

If six months of wages are owed, four months come from the security and the rest stays as a claim against the shipowner. Paragraph 14 records that this Standard does not displace other rights, claims or remedies.

What gets paid is wider than the test and runs until the seafarer is home

(c) the essential needs of the seafarer including such items as: adequate food, clothing where necessary, accommodation, drinking water supplies, essential fuel for survival on board the ship, necessary medical care and any other reasonable costs or charges from the act or omission constituting the abandonment until the seafarer’s arrival at home.

Item	Paragraph 5: maintenance and support (the test)	Paragraph 9 (c): essential needs (what is paid)
Food, accommodation, water, survival fuel, care	○	○
Clothing where necessary	Not listed	○
Other reasonable costs from the abandonment	Not listed	○
An end point at arrival home	Not listed	○

The paying list has an end point attached. It runs from the act or omission constituting the abandonment until the seafarer arrives home. The test has no period attached. It looks only at what has been cut off on board at that moment. So the day abandonment is made out and the day the security stops paying are two different events.

The certificate is not only carried on board but posted where seafarers can see it

6. Each Member shall require that ships that fly its flag, and to which paragraph 1 or 2 of Regulation 5.1.3 applies, carry on board a certificate or other documentary evidence of financial security issued by the financial security provider. A copy shall be posted in a conspicuous place on board where it is available to the seafarers. Where more than one financial security provider provides cover, the document provided by each provider shall be carried on board.

One sentence carries three requirements. The ship carries a certificate or other documentary evidence of financial security issued by the provider. A copy goes up in a conspicuous place (a conspicuous place) where seafarers can see it. Where more than one provider gives cover, the document from each of them is carried.

It applies to ships to which paragraph 1 or 2 of Regulation 5.1.3 applies. What goes on the certificate is set by Appendix A2-I, and it is in English or carries an English translation.

The security does not simply stop before its period of validity ends. It ends earlier only where the provider has given the competent authority of the flag State at least 30 days notice.

Worth confirming

The passages above come from printed pages 37 and 38 of the consolidated MLC, 2006 (including the 2022 amendments). Standard A2.5.2 is mandatory.

The form of the security is set by the Member after consultation with the shipowners’ and seafarers’ organizations concerned. A social security scheme, insurance, a national fund or another similar arrangement all qualify. So where a claim goes and what evidence it needs differ from ship to ship. The answer for a given ship is on the certificate posted on board and in flag State law.