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.
A seafarer employment agreement is not long. Six to twelve pages, an annex with the wage table, a signature block. Knowing what to check in a seafarer contract is mostly knowing where to look, because what makes the document hard to read is where you read it: at the agency counter with a ticket in your pocket, or in the crew office on board with the relief already on the gangway. Nobody reads well in either place.
Two different jobs, two different lists. Spotting the clauses that are actively working against you is one job; that list, with the exact MLC provision to quote against each clause, is in 10 Red Flags in a Seafarer Contract. This page is the other job: the routine check. Ten points you read on every contract, every time, even when the agency is good and the ship is known. A clean SEA passes this list in one careful sitting. A bad one usually fails it at point 2 or point 8.
Here is the list, in the order the clauses usually appear, each with the MLC 2006 standard that sits behind it and the question to ask the crewing officer when a clause looks wrong. Print it, or keep it on the phone next to the contract PDF.
Watch: what to check in a seafarer contract
The ten points
1. The parties and your position
Your full name, date and place of birth. The shipowner's name and address, not only the manning agent's. The ship. The capacity you are signing on for: AB, oiler, second engineer, cabin steward. The place and date of signing. MLC Standard A2.1, paragraph 4 lists what every seafarer employment agreement must contain, and this is the top of that list. A contract that names the agency as your employer and leaves the shipowner out is the first thing to ask about.
Two practical checks. Standard A2.1 also gives you a signed original: you and the shipowner, or the shipowner's authorized representative, each sign, and you keep one signed copy. A photocopy of an unsigned draft is not your SEA. Then ask the question straight: "Who is my employer under this agreement, the owner or the agency?" A crewing officer who cannot answer that in one sentence has answered it.
2. The wage split
Basic wage, overtime rate, leave pay, stated separately. Paid at least monthly, with a written account of what was paid and what was deducted (Standard A2.2). A single "all inclusive" figure is not a wage clause, it is a way to hide the overtime. The ILO minimum basic wage for an able seafarer is USD 690 per month from January 1, 2026; many ITF collective agreements pay well above it. How that floor works is in Seafarer Minimum Wage 2026.
The real numbers usually live in the annex, not in the clause. Check that the wage table names your rank, not "as per company scale." Then find the allotment clause: under Standard A2.2 the shipowner must give you a way to send part of your wages home, at a reasonable charge and at the prevailing market exchange rate. For an AB feeding a family through a monthly allotment, that exchange rate line is worth more than most people read it for.
3. Hours of rest
At least 10 hours of rest in any 24-hour period and 77 hours in any 7-day period, divided into no more than two periods, one of them at least six hours long (Standard A2.3). The contract should say so, or refer to the CBA that does. "Such hours as the Master requires" is not a rest-hour clause. It is the sentence that makes week nine of a watch rotation dangerous.
Rest hours also leave a paper trail. Records must be kept on board, endorsed by the master or an authorized officer and by you, and you get a copy of your own (Standard A2.3). On a 6-on-6-off port rotation that copy is the evidence. So the question at the counter is short: "Who signs my rest hour records, and when do I get my copy?"
4. Paid annual leave
The minimum is 2.5 calendar days per month of employment (Standard A2.4). Check whether leave pay is listed as its own line and whether the contract says when it is paid out. Leave "included in the all inclusive wage" is a red flag, not an answer.
One more line worth finding. Any agreement to give up the minimum paid annual leave is prohibited under Standard A2.4, except where the flag state specifically allows it. A clause that trades your leave for a slightly fatter monthly figure is not a deal, it is a void clause. Ask when leave pay is settled: monthly on the wage account, or as a lump sum at sign-off.
5. Contract length and how it ends
The duration, the conditions for termination, and the notice period for both sides. The MLC asks for a minimum notice period of not less than seven days, set by the flag state, with shorter notice allowed for compassionate or other urgent reasons without penalty to you (Standard A2.1, paragraphs 5 and 6). Open-ended "extended for operational reasons" is not a duration. And the maximum service period before you are entitled to repatriation must be less than 12 months (Standard A2.5, paragraph 2).
Most deep-sea contracts also carry a plus or minus month: the company may sign you off up to a month early or keep you up to a month past the end date, port rotation deciding which. That range belongs in writing, not in a verbal "more or less." What counts as normal per rank and trade, and how the plus-minus clause works in practice, is in how many months a seafarer contract runs.
6. Repatriation
The flight home is the shipowner's cost (Standard A2.5). You cannot be required to pay an advance toward it, and it cannot be deducted from your wages unless you are found in serious default of your obligations. Check the destination too: the contract should name where you are repatriated to, normally the place of engagement or your home. A clause that charges you the replacement crew member's travel if you leave early is the same problem wearing a different hat.
Since the 2014 amendments entered into force, ships must also carry financial security for the case nobody signs up for: abandonment. The certificate is posted on board where crew can see it. If wages stop and the owner goes quiet, that insurer covers up to four months of outstanding wages plus the flight home (Standard A2.5.2). And ask which airport the contract repatriates you to. "Place of engagement" and "home" are not always the same city, and the difference is a domestic ticket you would pay yourself.
7. Medical care and insurance
Sickness and injury on board and ashore are the shipowner's cost, including medical treatment in a foreign port, until you are recovered or declared permanent (Regulation 4.2 and Standard A4.2). Look for who pays the doctor ashore, whether wages continue while you are unfit, and whether there is a named P&I club or insurer behind it. "Medically fit, own expense" is the wrong answer to all three.
The wage question while sick has a floor. If you are landed ashore, wages continue until you recover or until the shipowner's liability period ends, and the flag state cannot set that period shorter than 16 weeks from the day of injury or the start of the sickness (Standard A4.2.1). So "who pays, and for how long" has a checkable answer. Ask for the name of the P&I club before you fly. A cabin steward who breaks a wrist on a wet crew stairway should not be learning that name for the first time in a hospital ashore.
8. Recruitment fees
You pay none. Standard A1.4, paragraph 5 puts the cost of recruitment and placement on the shipowner and the agency. What you pay for is your own statutory documents: medical certificate, seafarer's book, passport, visa. A "processing fee" in the contract or at the counter is a breach with a paragraph number. The detail is in Manning Agency Fees: What They Can Charge You, and What They Cannot.
Keep the receipts either way. What you pay for your own documents should come with an itemized receipt naming each item. A counter that takes cash for a "documentation package" without a receipt is building the file against itself, and that file is exactly what an ITF inspector or the flag state will ask you for later.
9. The collective agreement
If the contract refers to a CBA, get its name and year, and ask for a copy. Your rank's real wage table, overtime rate and leave entitlement usually live there, not in the SEA itself. A contract that says "as per CBA" without naming one has given you nothing to check.
You can verify the claim before you sign. The ITF and its national unions can check by ship name and IMO number whether a vessel is covered by an ITF agreement, and the call is free. On a cruise ship the CBA matters even more, because hotel department wage structures usually sit in it rather than in the SEA. How that works deck to galley is in Cruise Ship Crew Contracts and MLC Rights.
10. The flag and the complaint path
The flag on the stern decides which administration stands behind your contract and handles MLC complaints. Every ship must have an on-board complaint procedure, and the MLC protects you from victimization for using it (Regulation 5.1.5 and Standard A5.1.5). Save the flag state complaint contact in your phone before you fly, next to the ITF number.
The flag also answers a bigger question: whose labor law fills the gaps the contract leaves open. On an open registry (Panama, Liberia, Marshall Islands and the rest) that answer is rarely the country you or the owner live in. What that means for enforcement, and why crews still sail those flags every day, is in Flags of Convenience and Seafarer Contracts.
The flag on your contract: who you are dealing with
Most seafarer employment agreements name one of a handful of registries, and each has a different address behind it. Panama: Panama Maritime Authority (AMP), MLC 2006 implemented through Executive Decree No. 86 of 2013, complaints to mlcsegumar@amp.gob.pa. Liberia: the Liberian Registry (LISCR) for the Liberia Maritime Authority, governed by Liberian Maritime Law and RLM-108, complaints to MLComplaints@liscr.com. Marshall Islands: International Registries, Inc. in Reston, Virginia, RMI Maritime Act and MI-108, on-board complaints per Marine Notice MN-7-053-1. Bahamas: Bahamas Maritime Authority, complaint procedure per Marine Notice MN033, stcw@bahamasmaritime.com. Malta: Transport Malta, Merchant Shipping Directorate, mlc.tm@transport.gov.mt. Facts verified against the official registry websites on July 15, 2026.
All seventeen supported flags, each with authority, governing law, complaint contact and the SEA checklist, are on the tool's flag states pages. How a complaint actually moves through the three big registries is in our guides for Panama, Liberia and the Marshall Islands.
Check all ten in about a minute
The free MLC Contract Check reads your contract against exactly these points: pick the flag, upload the PDF or photos, press the button. The report comes back clause by clause, color coded, with the MLC standard behind each finding, and the contract is never stored. How it works step by step is in How to Use the MLC Contract Check.
Make the check part of sign-on
Crew who fly out several times a year run sign-on like a drill: documents in one folder, medical in date, contract read before the airport, never at it. Some of that rhythm is gear. The sign-on set and the sign-on sign-off crew hoodie exist because that day is a marker in a seafarer's year, and the contract check belongs in the same routine. Read first. Pack second. Sign third.
Source note
Maritime Labour Convention, 2006, as amended (ILO), Standards A1.4, A2.1 to A2.5, A2.5.2, A4.2 and A5.1.5; ITF Seafarers: your rights under the MLC; Seafarers Rights International: employment agreement; flag-state facts: MLC Contract Check, methodology and sources. This article is editorial context for crew, not legal advice. For a decision about your own contract, talk to the ITF, your national union, or a lawyer in your jurisdiction.
FAQ
What should I check in a seafarer contract before signing?
Ten points: the parties and your capacity, the wage split, hours of rest, paid annual leave, duration and termination, repatriation, medical care, recruitment fees (there should be none), the collective agreement, and the flag with its complaint path. Each point has a specific MLC 2006 standard behind it.
What must a seafarer employment agreement contain under the MLC?
Standard A2.1, paragraph 4: your name, birth date and place; the shipowner's name and address; place and date of signing; capacity; wages or the formula for them; paid annual leave; termination conditions and notice; health and social security benefits; repatriation entitlement; reference to the collective agreement if one applies.
Can I take the contract home to read it first?
Yes. Standard A2.1, paragraph 1(b) gives you the opportunity to examine the agreement and seek advice before signing. Ask for it by email before the flight. A professional agency sends a PDF the same day.
Do I get my own copy of the seafarer employment agreement?
Yes. Under Standard A2.1 both sides sign the agreement and you keep a signed original, and a copy must be available on board for review. An unsigned photocopy is not a substitute.
The wage in the contract is lower than the CBA table. Which one counts?
If the contract names a CBA, the CBA terms apply to you and the higher figure is the one you can enforce. Ask for the CBA name and keep a copy. If no CBA is named, what you can enforce is what is written in the SEA.
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