Seafarers' employment agreement (SEA) required particulars and onboard documents (MLC Standard A2.1)

An inspector comes up at a port of call and asks to see the third officer’s employment agreement. Where the originals have to be, what has to be on board, and what has to be written in the agreement is answered document by document by MLC, 2006 Regulation 2.1 and Standard A2.1. This article follows those documents one at a time.

There are two originals. The shipowner keeps one and the seafarer keeps one

(c) the shipowner and seafarer concerned shall each have a signed original of the seafarers’ employment agreement;

That is Standard A2.1, paragraph 1(c). The signatures are the seafarer’s and the shipowner’s, or a representative of the shipowner (paragraph 1(a)). Where seafarers are not employees, evidence of contractual or similar arrangements takes that place. Before signing, the seafarer must have the opportunity to examine the agreement and seek advice (Regulation 2.1, paragraph 2, and paragraph 1(b)), along with the facilities needed to enter into it freely with a sufficient understanding of their rights and responsibilities.

A copy must be on board, and inspectors in ports of call must be able to review it

measures shall be taken to ensure that clear information as to the conditions of their employment can be easily obtained on board by seafarers, including the ship’s master, and that such information, including a copy of the seafarers’ employment agreement, is also accessible for review by officers of a competent authority, including those in ports to be visited;

That is paragraph 1(d). An agreement that lives only in an office drawer does not meet this requirement. Seafarers, the master included, must be able to obtain clear information on their conditions of employment easily on board, that information includes a copy of the agreement, and officers of a competent authority in ports to be visited must be able to review it.

Where a collective bargaining agreement forms all or part of the agreement, a copy of it must also be on board (paragraph 2). If the language of the agreement and the collective bargaining agreement is not English, two things must also be available in English: a copy of a standard form of the agreement, and the portions of the collective bargaining agreement subject to port State inspection under Regulation 5.2. Ships engaged only in domestic voyages are the exception.

The 11 particulars are the Convention’s floor, and national law builds on top

That is paragraph 4. Each Member specifies by law what goes into the agreement, but in all cases the following 11 particulars must be there.

Item	Particular
(a)	The seafarer’s full name, date of birth or age, and birthplace
(b)	The shipowner’s name and address
(c)	The place where and date when the agreement is entered into
(d)	The capacity in which the seafarer is to be employed
(e)	The amount of wages, or where applicable the formula for calculating them
(f)	The amount of paid annual leave, or where applicable the formula for it
(g)	The termination of the agreement and its conditions
(h)	The health and social security protection benefits the shipowner provides
(i)	The seafarer’s entitlement to repatriation
(j)	Reference to the collective bargaining agreement, if applicable
(k)	Any other particulars national law may require

Item (g) splits three ways by the form of the agreement. For an agreement made for an indefinite period, the conditions entitling either party to terminate it and the notice period. For a definite period, the date fixed for its expiry. For a voyage, the port of destination and the time that has to expire after arrival before the seafarer is discharged.

Notice cannot go below seven days, and the shipowner’s notice cannot be shorter than the seafarer’s

The duration of these minimum periods shall be determined after consultation with the shipowners’ and seafarers’ organizations concerned, but shall not be shorter than seven days.

That is paragraph 5. Minimum notice periods for early termination are set by law, with seven days as the floor. The direction is fixed too: in an agreement for an indefinite period, the notice period for the shipowner shall not be less than for the seafarer (paragraph 4(g)(i)).

Shorter notice, or termination without notice, is possible only in circumstances recognized under national law or a collective bargaining agreement (paragraph 6). In determining those circumstances, each Member must take into account the seafarer’s need to terminate on shorter notice, without penalty, for compassionate or other urgent reasons.

The record of employment must not carry performance ratings or wages

The document referred to in paragraph 1(e) of this Standard shall not contain any statement as to the quality of the seafarers’ work or as to their wages.

Seafarers are given a document containing a record of their employment on board the ship (paragraph 1(e)). Paragraph 3 then fixes what must not go into it: statements on the quality of their work, and their wages. Guideline B2.1.1 shows why. This document exists to help the seafarer find further work or prove the sea service required for upgrading. It is a service record, not an appraisal, and the recommendation to include an English translation follows from the same purpose. A seafarers’ discharge book may satisfy the requirement. The form of the document, the particulars recorded, and how they are entered are for national law (paragraph 3).

The agreement does not end while the seafarer is held captive by pirates

a seafarer’s employment agreement shall continue to have effect while a seafarer is held captive on or off the ship as a result of acts of piracy or armed robbery against ships, regardless of whether the date fixed for its expiry has passed or either party has given notice to suspend or terminate it.

That is paragraph 7, a provision added by the 2018 amendments. While a seafarer is held captive on or off the ship as a result of piracy or armed robbery against ships, the agreement continues to have effect. That holds even if the expiry date has passed, and even if either party has given notice. Piracy takes its definition from the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, 1982, and armed robbery against ships is defined in the paragraph itself. That wages keep being paid during captivity is settled separately by Standard A2.2 on the wages side.

The form of the agreement and its details belong to national law (paragraph 3 and paragraph 4(k)). The particulars and periods in this article are the floor the Convention sets, so an actual agreement has to be checked against flag state law and the applicable collective bargaining agreement together.