Marshall Islands Flag Labor Law: The 10,000 Dollar Clause and Other Fi

Safety Officer · 7S1L crewMartin Lex

Martin Lex is the pen name of the 7S1L safety desk: SOLAS, lifesaving and firefighting gear, muster drills, emergency signals and safe work on board. Portrait is illustrative.

Here is a number to carry up the gangway: 10,000 dollars. That is the statutory floor for direct compensation when a seafarer dies in service on a Marshall Islands ship, set in the RMI Maritime Act and its regulations, the two documents that hold most of Marshall Islands flag labor law. Not a typo, and not the whole story either, because a decent CBA multiplies it many times over. Whether your contract has that CBA is exactly the kind of thing to find out before you sign, not after.

Before you sign a contract under the Marshall Islands flag, know which laws apply. You can check your seafarer contract free in the Seafarer Contract Checker, which reads your SEA against MLC 2006 and the verified RMI flag facts.

A Pacific flag, written in Virginia

The Marshall Islands register is the third largest in the world, 305 million deadweight tons and 12.5 percent of the fleet at the start of 2025 per UNCTAD. It is administered by International Registries, Inc., a private, employee-owned company in Reston, Virginia, heir to the same 1948 venture that built the Liberian registry. The Maritime Act of 1990 (MI-107) was modeled on Liberia's law, and Section 113 adopts the general maritime law of the United States as RMI law. Your SEA must say so, too: Section 853 requires every contract for seafaring labor to stipulate RMI law for its terms and its disputes. There is no negotiating the governing law clause under this flag. It is prescribed.

What that means at the crewing office is simple. The governing law line in your SEA is not up for discussion, and neither is where a dispute gets decided. Everything the law leaves open is, and that is more than most crew expect. So ask the agent two questions before anything else. Which CBA covers this ship, by name? And is it an ITF agreement? If the first answer is a shrug, the 10,000 dollar floor and the statutory minimums below are your actual terms. Write the CBA name down. You will want it later.

The fine print that moves money

Sick pay follows the Liberian formula word for word: full wages on board, one third of basic pay ashore for a maximum of 16 weeks, board and care up to 30 weeks (Section 836). If the ship is lost, the unemployment indemnity is capped at two months of wages (MI-108, Section 7.52.6). Overtime must be at least 1.25 times the basic hourly rate, and then the regulation adds four quiet words: unless otherwise stipulated. A SEA can stipulate otherwise. Read your overtime clause with that in mind, and remember that work the master orders for the safety of the vessel earns no overtime at all.

Run that sick pay formula against a real month. Say an oiler earns 1,200 dollars basic and gets landed ashore sick. The statutory entitlement is one third of that, 400 dollars a month, for up to 16 weeks. If the allotment home was 1,000 dollars, the family is short from the first remittance. A CBA clause that keeps basic wages running while you recover changes that completely. This is why the CBA question at the crewing office is not paperwork. It is grocery money.

The overtime clause deserves the same reading. Look for a stated hourly figure in the SEA itself. If the clause only points back to the regulations, ask the agent to put the number in writing before you sign, because "unless otherwise stipulated" cuts in both directions and the stipulating happens in the document in front of you.

Repatriation can be forfeited after a disciplinary dismissal or a breach of the SEA (Section 844). And one structural clause worth knowing: the Administrator, in practice IRI staff in Virginia, may approve collective agreement provisions that deviate from the Maritime Act at its sole discretion, as substantially equivalent. The register, the rule book and the referee share an address.

Section 844 sounds abstract until a contract ends badly in a foreign port. If your discharge is written up as disciplinary, the shipowner can argue the flight home is your cost. So if a contract goes sideways, get the stated reason for discharge in writing before you walk down the gangway, and keep a copy of every warning letter you are asked to sign. The wording on that paper can decide who pays for the ticket.

How this flag handles MLC compliance

On paper, the RMI is an MLC veteran. It ratified the Maritime Labour Convention on 25 September 2007, years before the convention entered into force, and the Administrator states that the amendments of 2014, 2016, 2018 and 2022 have been implemented into RMI law as they entered into force, through MI-108 and a series of marine notices. The inspection and certification program sits in Marine Notice 2-011-33, and the survey work itself is delegated to recognized organizations, the same classification societies that handle the ship's technical certificates.

Two documents matter to you. A ship of 500 gross tons or more on international voyages must carry a Maritime Labour Certificate and a Declaration of Maritime Labour Compliance. Part I of the DMLC is the flag state's list of requirements. Part II is the shipowner's own description of how it complies, in its own words. Ask to see Part II. It is the closest thing aboard to a plain statement of what the company has promised the flag about your working and living conditions.

There is also a required complaint route. Every RMI ship must carry an onboard complaint procedure (Marine Notice 7-053-1), and beyond the master and the DPA stands the flag state itself. If a term of your SEA or the MLC is being ignored and the chain of command goes nowhere, the step-by-step route with addresses and evidence tips is in our guide to filing an MLC complaint against a Marshall Islands ship. Read it before you need it. Complaints written in the middle of the dispute are always weaker than complaints prepared in calm water.

The quality paradox

None of this makes RMI ships bad ships. The opposite, mostly: the registry has held US Coast Guard QUALSHIP 21 status for 22 consecutive years, the only registry ever to do that, and stands on the Paris MoU and Tokyo MoU White Lists. Hulls and paperwork are inspected hard. The labor floor underneath is still the one described above, and only your SEA and CBA raise it. The baseline the flag does guarantee: seven days of minimum notice, 2.5 days of leave per month plus five paid holidays, and wage continuation if you are held captive by pirates.

Before you sign: a Marshall Islands flag labor law checklist

Sign-on day never leaves time to read. The van is waiting, the agent has the tickets, your sign on set is packed, and the SEA appears with a pen already attached. So do the reading the night before, at the kitchen table, in the seafarer hoodie you fly out in. The general traps are in our seafarer employment agreement red flags guide. These seven checks are specific to this flag:

Governing law: the SEA must stipulate RMI law (Section 853). It is prescribed, so a contract naming any other law is a red flag on its own.
CBA: find the collective agreement referenced by name. Check its death and disability schedule against the 10,000 dollar statutory floor. No CBA means that floor is your number.
Overtime: at least 1.25 times basic hourly, written as a figure in the SEA, not as a pointer back to the regulations.
Sick pay: know the statutory formula (full wages aboard, one third ashore, 16 weeks) and check whether your CBA improves it.
Repatriation: read the forfeiture wording against Section 844 and know what the contract counts as a breach.
Certificates: a ship of 500 GT or more on international voyages must carry the Maritime Labour Certificate and DMLC. Ask for Part II.
Contacts: save the flag state contact details before you fly, from our verified Marshall Islands flag page.

One more thing about the agent. If the crewing office charged you for the job itself, that is a separate violation with its own rules; our manning agency fees guide covers what is legal and what is not. And for the wider picture of how open registries compete for tonnage, and what that competition does to contracts, start with our flags of convenience guide. How the biggest register of them all handles the same clauses is in our breakdown of Panama flag labor law.

The 90 second version

This flag in one video:

How the Marshall Islands flag rates in port state control

Port state control keeps score on every flag. The regional inspection regimes publish each year which registers get detained most, and the ITF keeps its own list of flags of convenience. This is where Marshall Islands stands on the current lists:

Paris MoU (Europe and Canada): white list, rank 21 of 69, performance list valid July 1, 2026 to July 6, 2027.
Tokyo MoU (Asia Pacific): high performance, inspections and detentions 2022 to 2024.
ITF: listed as a flag of convenience, 2025 list.
MLC 2006: party to the Convention.

These lists count detentions, not contracts. A white list flag can still sit under a bad SEA, and a black list flag tells you how much backing to expect from the administration when something goes wrong on board. The current rating of every flag we cover stands on the Marshall Islands flag page, and the app report names MLC 2006 plus the flag at the top of every check, with the same rating next to it.

Source note

RMI Maritime Act (MI-107), RMI Maritime Regulations (MI-108), Marine Guideline MG 7-45-1, the Administrator's MLC 2006 program page (ratification date, amendment status, Marine Notices 2-011-33 and 7-053-1), UNCTAD fleet data as of January 1, 2025, and QUALSHIP 21 reporting. This article is editorial context written for crew. It is not legal advice; for a live dispute under a specific SEA, talk to your union or a maritime lawyer.

FAQ

Is the Marshall Islands flag a flag of convenience?

Yes. The ITF lists the Marshall Islands as a flag of convenience because most tonnage is owned outside the country and the register is run commercially by International Registries, Inc. in Virginia. The label says nothing about ship quality by itself; the RMI fleet inspects well.

What labor law applies on a Marshall Islands flagged ship?

RMI law: the Maritime Act 1990 (MI-107) and the Maritime Regulations (MI-108). Section 853 requires every seafarer employment agreement to stipulate RMI law, and Section 113 adopts the general maritime law of the United States as part of RMI law.

Has the Marshall Islands ratified the MLC 2006?

Yes, on 25 September 2007, among the earliest ratifications. The convention is implemented through MI-108, and recognized organizations inspect and certify RMI ships under the program in Marine Notice 2-011-33.

What is the 10,000 dollar clause in Marshall Islands flag labor law?

It is the statutory floor for direct compensation when a seafarer dies in service on an RMI ship. Most collective bargaining agreements set far higher amounts, which is why the CBA schedule in your contract matters more than the statute.

Is the Marshall Islands flag good for seafarers?

On safety and inspections, yes: 22 consecutive years of QUALSHIP 21 and White List status with the Paris and Tokyo MoUs. On pay and compensation the statutory floors are low, so your SEA and CBA decide what working under this flag is actually worth.

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