A contract signed the evening before joining, a rest-hours record filled in hastily at the end of the month, a repatriation promised verbally: these three situations have one thing in common. They are not matters of goodwill on board — they are governed by an international convention that gives you enforceable rights, the Maritime Labour Convention 2006.
The MLC is the fourth pillar of maritime regulation, alongside SOLAS, MARPOL and STCW. It is almost always presented from the owner’s point of view, as one more compliance file. Read from the seafarer’s side, it is something else: a list of guarantees, each tied to a specific document, a specific deadline and a specific route of recourse. You just need to know which ones, and where to look.
Does it apply to your vessel?
Almost always, as soon as the vessel exceeds 500 GT and trades internationally. Under the Cayman Islands, Marshall Islands or Isle of Man flags, the convention applies to yachts above that threshold whatever their private or commercial status: the trigger is tonnage, not use. Below 500 GT, the flag generally applies a lighter regime inspired by the same text — and the clauses of your own contract remain owed to you in full.
Two documents answer the question in thirty seconds: the Maritime Labour Certificate and the Declaration of Maritime Labour Compliance (DMLC), Parts I and II, which must be posted on board in a place accessible to the crew. Their absence is, in itself, the first warning sign.
Your employment agreement
You must hold a written agreement, signed by you and by the shipowner, drafted in a language you understand, and you must keep an original. You have the right to examine it and to seek advice before signing — not to discover it on the bridge, pen in hand, fifteen minutes before departure.
As a minimum it states: the identity of the parties, your position, the place and date of engagement, remuneration, paid leave, termination conditions — including a notice period that cannot be shorter than seven days — repatriation, health protection and social security benefits, and a reference to a collective agreement where one exists.
At the end of the engagement you are entitled to a record of employment attesting your sea time. That document contains no assessment of the quality of your work and no mention of your wages: it is that record, not a letter of recommendation, that counts towards your certificates.
Wages
Wages are due at least once a month, together with an individual account showing the amounts paid and, where relevant, the exchange rate applied. You must also be able to transmit all or part of your earnings to your family, at a reasonable cost.
Untraceable cash and off-contract arrangements are not acceptable variants: they deprive you of the only evidence that matters the day the amount is disputed.
Rest hours
The floor is twofold, and both conditions must be met at the same time: 10 hours of rest in any 24-hour period and 77 hours in any 7-day period. Rest may not be divided into more than two periods, one of which must be at least six hours, and the interval between consecutive rest periods may not exceed fourteen hours.
The table of shipboard working arrangements must be posted, in English and in the working language of the vessel. Your hours are recorded and then countersigned by you and by the master, and you are entitled to a copy of your own records.
One word on this point, because it comes up in almost every dispute: that register is your evidence, not the vessel’s. Signing a record you know to be false retroactively deprives you of any recourse — on the hours themselves, but also on everything that follows from them, fatigue and accidents included. If the record does not match your week, have it corrected before you sign.
Paid leave and shore leave
The conventional minimum is 2.5 calendar days per month of employment, thirty days a year, without the flag State’s public holidays being counted against that total. As for shore leave, it is not a favour granted by the master: the convention treats it as part of health and well-being on board.
Repatriation
You are entitled to free repatriation in several cases: on expiry of the agreement, on termination by the shipowner, on termination by you for justified reasons, and in the event of illness, injury, shipwreck or the shipowner’s insolvency. The maximum period of continuous service on board before that right arises is less than twelve months.
Since the amendments that entered into force in 2017, this right is backed by financial security — abandonment insurance whose certificate must be posted on board. It covers repatriation, essential needs, and up to four months of outstanding wages and entitlements. Checking that the certificate is actually posted, and reading the insurer’s name, takes a minute when you join. It is a minute well spent.
Medical care and cover
Care is free of charge for the whole duration of the engagement, on board and ashore, dental care included, and you have the right to visit a doctor or dentist without delay in ports of call. A second financial security, distinct from abandonment insurance, covers compensation due in the event of death or long-term disability arising from an occupational injury or disease. Its certificate is also posted on board.
Accommodation, food, water
Food and drinking water are supplied free of charge, of appropriate quantity and quality, and a qualified ship’s cook is required from ten persons of prescribed manning upwards. Crew accommodation meets precise standards — volume, ventilation, lighting, noise — and is subject to regular documented inspections carried out by or under the authority of the master.
Violence and harassment: the framework has just moved
Since 1 January 2026, preventing violence and harassment — sexual harassment, bullying and sexual assault included — has been a mandatory STCW competence, built into the PSSR module of basic training. And the International Labour Conference, meeting on 6 June 2025 for its 113th session, adopted amendments to the MLC that explicitly prohibit those behaviours and require the shipowner to have a prevention policy and safe reporting channels, with entry into force expected on 23 December 2027. We covered that shift in Harassment at sea: the 2026 regulatory shift.
Complaining without burning yourself
Every ship must have an on-board complaint procedure, a copy of which is given to you at engagement. It provides that you may be accompanied or represented, and retaliation against a complainant is prohibited.
The ladder of recourse runs as follows: your head of department, then the master, then the shipowner. Outside the vessel’s chain of command, the DPA — the Designated Person Ashore, whose contact details are posted — is a neutral point of contact. Beyond that lie the flag State, then the Port State Control of the port of call, which can detain the vessel, and an ITF inspector where a collective agreement applies.
In every case: write it down, date it, keep copies. A verbal, undated complaint leaves nothing usable three months later.
The file you should keep on your own side
The best-protected seafarer is not the one who knows the convention by heart, it is the one who keeps their documents:
- the signed employment agreement, in its final version;
- monthly wage accounts;
- your countersigned rest-hours records;
- your STCW certificates, your ENG1 medical certificate and their expiry dates;
- your records of employment, engagement by engagement.
That is exactly what a manager will ask for when you apply. It is also what you can upload and keep current in the Cursorio crew area, rather than rebuilding it under pressure before every new engagement.
