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.
Look up from almost any berth in the world and you will find the Panama flag on a stern nearby. UNCTAD counted 371 million deadweight tons under the Panamanian flag at the start of 2025, 15.2 percent of the world fleet. That scale means one thing for you: whatever is going wrong with your contract, wages or rest hours, an MLC complaint under the Panama flag lands on a desk that has processed thousands like it. The Panama Maritime Authority (AMP) runs that desk in Panama City.
This guide is the complaint route from start to finish. What Panamanian law says about the contract itself, the 16 week sickness cliff, the claim limits, overtime at 25 percent, lives in our companion guide to Panama flag labor law. This page is about enforcement.
One rule stands over everything here. Paper first. A complaint is exactly as strong as the dates and copies behind it.
Secure the evidence before you complain
Start collecting on the day something first feels wrong, not on the day you decide to act. Photograph your SEA, every monthly wage account (the shipowner owes you one under MLC Standard A2.2), your rest hour records, and any notice posted or handed to you. Use your own phone and back everything up off the ship, because access to the ship's computer can end the moment a dispute starts.
Then keep a timeline. Plain dates, plain facts: the day wages stopped, the port where the chief officer said the overtime sheet would be "fixed later", the names of crewmates who heard it. An oiler with a dated timeline and twelve photos is a case. An oiler with a memory is a story. Hand over copies only. Originals stay with you.
Clauses that try to sign away your right to complain are void under Panama's MLC implementation, and they are exactly the kind of tell our guide to seafarer employment agreement red flags teaches you to spot before you fly out.
Start on board, and put it in writing
The MLC on-board complaint procedure comes first, and that is not a formality that buries your case. MLC Regulation 5.1.5 requires the procedure to exist on every ship the Convention covers, and it forbids victimization for using it. Hand your complaint to your head of department or the master, keep a dated copy for yourself, and note who received it. That dated copy becomes the spine of everything that follows.
Standard A5.1.5 also says every seafarer gets a copy of the procedure at sign-on, naming the flag state's competent authority, the authority in your country of residence where that differs, and a person on board who can advise you confidentially. You may bring a shipmate of your choice to any stage. A cadet does not have to face the master alone. The Convention sets no single deadline for an answer; each procedure prints its own time limits in that same copy. Read them before you need them.
When to go straight to the flag state
The on-board route is the default, not a cage. Write to Panama directly when the procedure has stalled past its own time limits, when the master or the company office is the problem, or when you have signed off and are home with an unpaid balance. Write immediately when wages are two or more months behind: under the MLC as amended in 2014 that meets the definition of abandonment once support is also cut, and the financial security certificate posted on board names the insurer who must then step in. Photograph that certificate too. And if filing on board cost you overtime, shore leave or your next contract, that retaliation goes into the flag state complaint as a separate breach.
Filing an MLC complaint with the Panama flag state
Panama implements the MLC through Executive Decree No. 86 of 2013. The competent office is the Department of Maritime Labour Affairs at the Panama Maritime Authority (AMP).
- Email: mlcsegumar@amp.gob.pa or mlc@segumar.com
- Phone: +507 501 4241
These are the same contacts our contract checker shows when you select Panama on the Panama flag page. They were verified against the official sources, not copied from a forum post.
What to put in the email
Short and complete beats long and vague. An inspector reading complaints in Panama City needs five things.
- Ship name and IMO number.
- Your rank and the dates of your contract.
- What happened, in dates and numbers: months of wages missing, rest hours cut, repatriation refused.
- What you already did on board, with the date you filed the on-board complaint.
- Copies: your SEA, wage statements, anything signed.
Put ship name and IMO number in the subject line. Plain English works. Send from a personal address you will still control after sign-off, and keep every reply.
The parallel doors stay open
A flag state complaint does not close the other routes.
Port state control is the nearest lever. MLC Regulation 5.2.2 gives you an onshore complaint route in any port the ship calls: report to the port state control officer, directly or through the agent, a chaplain or a shipmate ashore. The officer can inspect the ship under Regulation 5.2.1 and, for serious or repeated breaches, detain her at the berth until they are put right. Nothing concentrates a shipowner's attention like a ship that cannot sail.
The ITF helps crews on Panama-flagged ships every week, and an ITF inspector walking the gangway with your wage accounts in hand changes the conversation. A Mission to Seafarers or Stella Maris chaplain can print, scan and forward documents when your data allowance is gone.
Why open registries make so many doors necessary is the subject of our guide to flags of convenience and your contract.
Free crew appSeafarer Contract CheckCheck your contract clause by clause against MLC 2006 and flag state regulations. The check is free. On iPhone, Android or in the browser.
What realistically happens, and how long it takes
The AMP publishes no complaint turnaround statistics, and no honest guide should invent one. Panama runs one of the two largest registries on earth, and the volume is real. The usual sequence: acknowledgment, a request to the shipowner or its recognized organization, sometimes an inspection at the next port, then a direction to put things right. Count in weeks, sometimes months. Enforcement does produce money: the AMP recovered 8.5 million dollars in unpaid wages for crews in 2024.
Two clocks run while you wait. Most claims under a Panama SEA expire after one year, two for occupational risk, so a wage dispute parked through one more contract is usually lost. File before you fly if you can: a complaint from a crew member still on board gets attention faster than one sent from home two oceans away. Flag state, port state, ITF are three separate levers that move independently.
The route has the same shape under the other big registries, with different desks at the end. Our guides for the Liberia flag, the Marshall Islands flag and the Malta flag hold those verified contacts.
Check the contract before it becomes a complaint
Most of the complaints the AMP reads were visible in the SEA before it was signed. Run yours through the free MLC Contract Check and pick the Panama flag: it reads your contract clause by clause against MLC 2006 in about a minute, in your browser, no account. In problem mode the report names the strongest clause-based ground for a complaint and puts the AMP contact right under the verdict. How to get the most out of a check is in our walkthrough of the tool.
Crews who treat paper as part of the job board with everything ready: contract checked, copies photographed, bag packed the night before the flight. It is the same discipline 7SHORT1LONG® prints for. More than one AB flies out with a sign on set in the bag and a seafarer hoodie on for the 0500 gangway.
How the Panama 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 Panama stands on the current lists:
- Paris MoU (Europe and Canada): white list, rank 36 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 Panama 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
Panama Maritime Authority (amp.gob.pa), Executive Decree No. 86 of 2013 (English text via ClassNK), the MLC 2006 text at the ILO, ITF: your rights under the MLC, and UNCTAD fleet data as of January 1, 2025. Registry scale and the wage recovery figure follow the sources cited in our Panama flag labor law guide.
This article is editorial context from a crew brand, not legal advice. For a live dispute, put your documents in front of the ITF, a maritime lawyer, or the AMP itself.
FAQ
How do I file an MLC complaint under the Panama flag?
File a written complaint on board first and keep a dated copy. Then email the Department of Maritime Labour Affairs at the AMP (mlcsegumar@amp.gob.pa) with the ship name and IMO number, your SEA, wage accounts, and a dated timeline of what happened.
Do I have to finish the on-board procedure before writing to the AMP?
The MLC expects the on-board route to be available and used where possible, and a seafarer always keeps the right to complain directly to the flag state administration. Practically: file on board first if you safely can, then escalate without waiting forever for an answer that is not coming.
My contract is with a manning agency, not the shipowner. Does the flag state still apply?
Yes. The ship flies the Panama flag, so Panama's MLC implementation covers work on board, whoever signed as employer. Send the SEA along with the complaint and let the inspectors sort out the chain of responsibility.
Will the shipowner find out who complained?
Victimization for using the on-board procedure is prohibited by MLC Regulation 5.1.5, and flag state inspectors must treat the source of a grievance as confidential. On a crew of twenty, real anonymity has limits, so copy your evidence off the ship early.
How long does an MLC complaint to Panama take?
The AMP publishes no turnaround statistics. Expect weeks rather than days, sometimes months, and keep port state control and the ITF working in parallel.
Can port state control detain a Panama-flagged ship over an MLC complaint?
Yes. Any port the ship calls can inspect her against the MLC under Regulation 5.2.1, and serious or repeated breaches can hold the ship at the berth until they are fixed. Onshore complaints in port run through Regulation 5.2.2.
7S1L is a Seafarer Identity Brand. A complaint filed in time beats a story told too late.
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