The Maritime Labour Convention 2006 (MLC) contains a wide definition of seafarer - "any person who is employed or engaged or works in any capacity on board". Flag states may adopt different approaches in their domestic legislation. This may be important in relation to personnel working on board vessels but not employed by the owners, a situation which can arise in particular in the offshore sector. BIMCO investigated the potential impact of MLC on its standard contracts and concluded that the main area of concern is contracts where the owners may not be the direct employers of personnel working on board their vessel – such as in the case of offshore support vessels. Three BIMCO standard contracts, SHIPMAN, CREWMAN and SUPPLYTIME, have been identified as requiring additional wording to address MLC related issues. A suite of recommended additional clauses have been developed and can be found on www.bimco.org, together with an explanatory Circular.
Source: BIMCO
Published: May 2013