The two conditions on manning levels and where catering crew sit (MLC Regulation 2.7)

The document that sets how many people the ship carries is the minimum safe manning document. If the numbers on that document are filled, is the manning requirement done. MLC, 2006 Regulation 2.7 and Standard A2.7 say no. The provision sets two conditions and asks for both at once.

The provision asks for the document and the Convention side by side

Every ship shall be manned by a crew that is adequate, in terms of size and qualifications, to ensure the safety and security of the ship and its personnel, under all operating conditions, in accordance with the minimum safe manning document or an equivalent issued by the competent authority, and to comply with the standards of this Convention.

What follows the and at the end of the sentence is the second condition. Man the ship in accordance with the minimum safe manning document, and man it so as to comply with the standards of this Convention.

The manning document sets the minimum needed for safe navigation. The standards of the Convention ask different questions: whether the seafarers on that ship can keep their rest hours, whether food is provided. The two questions do not always resolve to the same headcount. That is why the provision writes both.

in terms of size and qualifications has to be read too. Not only the number but the qualifications have to be adequate. A full complement with the wrong qualifications does not get through this sentence.

Fatigue is in the Regulation itself

1. Each Member shall require that all ships that fly its flag have a sufficient number of seafarers employed on board to ensure that ships are operated safely, efficiently and with due regard to security under all conditions, taking into account concerns about seafarer fatigue and the particular nature and conditions of the voyage.

taking into account concerns about seafarer fatigue sits in the text of Regulation 2.7. Not a guideline, the Regulation. And the particular nature and conditions of the voyage follows it. Same ship type and same tonnage can call for a different sufficient number where the nature of the voyage differs.

Rest is a criterion when manning is set, approved and revised

2. When determining, approving or revising manning levels, the competent authority shall take into account the need to avoid or minimize excessive hours of work to ensure sufficient rest and to limit fatigue, as well as the principles in applicable international instruments, especially those of the International Maritime Organization, on manning levels.

Three verbs stand together: determining, approving or revising. The same consideration is required not only when the level is first set but when it is approved and when it is revised. The condition stays live after the manning document has issued.

What has to be taken into account is the need to avoid or minimize excessive hours of work. That runs in the same direction as the rest hour provisions. Where the rest provisions govern one person’s timetable, this provision asks for the headcount that lets the timetable hold. Short handed, the rest records give way first, and those records feed back into the manning judgement.

Catering crew enter the manning decision

3. When determining manning levels, the competent authority shall take into account all the requirements within Regulation 3.2 and Standard A3.2 concerning food and catering.

The manning provision pulls in the food and catering provisions whole. all the requirements. What Regulation 3.2 and Standard A3.2 require includes the qualification and the placement of the ship’s cook.

What that link means in practice is one thing. Catering crew are not an item appended after the manning plan; they are already in the count at the stage where the manning level is set.

There is a designated place for disputes about manning

Guideline B2.7.1 recommends maintaining machinery for the investigation and settlement of complaints or disputes concerning manning levels on a ship. It adds that representatives of shipowners’ and seafarers’ organizations should take part in operating that machinery.

Being a guideline, it is not mandatory. What it records is the direction: a judgement that manning is short should not be left to circulate only inside the ship.

Worth confirming

The passages above come from printed pages 41 and 42 of the consolidated MLC, 2006 (including the 2022 amendments). Standard A2.7 is mandatory, but the numbers and qualifications on the manning document are set by the competent authority of the flag State. Whether the complement on that ship’s manning document can run the voyage while keeping the rest hour provisions, and whether the ship’s cook qualification is inside that complement, are where the actual judgement starts.