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.
France sits near the top of the Paris MoU White List, sixth or seventh on the current ranking. The French international register also stands on the ITF's flag of convenience list, next to Panama and Liberia. Both facts describe the same flag. The RIF, the Registre International Francais, is the only register of a major EU maritime state that its own global seafarers' federation classifies with the open registries, and the reason sits in its employment rules. That is why France RIF flag labor law reads like two rulebooks under one tricolore: one for seafarers who live in France, one for everyone else.
Before you sign a contract under the French flag, know which laws apply. You can check your seafarer contract free in the Seafarer Contract Checker against MLC 2006 and the verified France flag facts.
Resident or not: the fork in the law
The RIF was created by law in May 2005 for oceangoing merchant ships, offshore vessels and commercial yachts over 15 meters. For seafarers resident in France, ordinary French maritime labor law applies, with everything that means. For non-residents the register's own website says it directly: the standard French employment regime is not applicable. A non-resident's contract and social protection are governed by the law the parties choose, and the floor under that choice is the set of ILO conventions France has ratified, the MLC included. A Manila-law contract on a French-flag ship is legal. The governing law clause in your SEA is therefore not boilerplate. Under this flag it is the single most consequential line on the page.
In practice the choice of law runs through Article L.5621-7 of the transport code, which points to the EU's Rome I regulation. The chosen law must be named in the contract: if the SEA says nothing, you are in a dispute about which law applies before you can argue about wages. A choice of law also cannot strip protections that would otherwise be mandatory. An AB signing at a manning office should ask one question out loud: which country's law governs this contract? If the crewing agent cannot answer in one sentence, that is a finding in itself.
The same article requires the SEA to follow MLC 2006 and to contain the full set of MLC particulars: your identity, the shipowner's name and address, the position, wages, paid leave, health and social security benefits, repatriation terms, any collective agreement, and the contract term. A contract that names only a local agent fails that test before you read a single wage figure. The wider warning signs are collected in our guide to seafarer employment agreement red flags.
The 35 percent rule
Crew composition is set by the transport code: crew from the EU, EEA, Switzerland or treaty states must make up at least 35 percent of the safe manning complement, and only 25 percent where the ship sits outside the tax aid scheme tied to its purchase. The master and the designated deputy must be French or EU. One more detail worth knowing: an owner can ask for the percentage to be assessed across its whole RIF fleet rather than ship by ship, so your particular vessel can lawfully sail with fewer EU crew than the number suggests.
What this means at the gangway is simple: mixed crews are the design. A French master, an EU chief officer, and ratings recruited through agencies in Manila or Mumbai can stand in the same muster line with three different governing laws in their contracts. The percentage rule fixes who must be aboard. It says nothing about the terms the rest sail under.
What kind of fleet this is
At the end of 2023 the RIF held 421 vessels: 104 in deep sea transport, 171 offshore service vessels, and 146 commercial yachts, the yacht count up 192 percent since 2017. In ship numbers the RIF has become substantially a superyacht register. For yacht crew the fork above applies with full force: a deckhand resident in Antibes and one resident in Cape Town can hold different governing laws on the same aft deck.
For offshore crew the pattern repeats with rotations instead of seasons. A DP operator flying in for a four-week swing on an RIF supply vessel is usually a non-resident, which puts the governing law clause, not French law, at the center of the contract.
France RIF flag labor law and MLC compliance
France ratified the Maritime Labour Convention on 28 February 2013, as the 35th ILO member state to do so, and the convention is the hard floor under every RIF contract regardless of the law the parties choose. The register adds specifics worth knowing, several of them stronger than what open registries offer.
The maximum period on board is six months, extendable to nine under a collective agreement, and either figure can shift by one month for operational reasons. That cap is shorter than many seafarers are used to; how tour lengths compare is covered in our guide to seafarer contract duration. Repatriation is the employer's obligation, written into the transport code. And Article L.5621-15 adds something few flags have: a non-resident seafarer whose contract ends is owed an end-of-contract allowance of at least two months' wages, unless the dismissal came during probation or from the seafarer's own misconduct.
Social protection for non-residents from outside the EU is also written down: insurance against sickness, accident, maternity and invalidity, plus a pension scheme, at a level no less favorable than the ILO conventions require. On wages, the practical reference floor is the ILO minimum basic wage for an able seafarer, 690 US dollars per month since 1 January 2026. The full picture behind that figure is in our seafarer minimum wage guide.
Certification and inspection run through the French administration, with the register's one-stop office, the Guichet unique du RIF, in Marseille. The practical point: the flag state you would complain to has staff, an address, and a strong Paris MoU record.
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.
Is the RIF a flag of convenience?
The ITF's current list of flags of convenience has 48 entries, and "French International Ship Registry (FIS)" is one of them. France itself, meaning the first register, is not. The listing is precise. What the ITF objects to is the employment model: the register detaches non-resident crew from French labor law and lets owners choose their crewing terms elsewhere. The second registers of other European states sit on the same list for the same reason, the German GIS and Madeira's MAR among them.
So the honest answer is both things at once. Port state control performance: strong, White List, a functioning administration. Employment model for non-residents: chosen law, ILO floor, the exact mechanism the ITF's FOC campaign was built to fight. Malta, the EU's largest register, stands on the same ITF list and resolves the tension differently, applying Maltese law to all crew. The RIF resolves it by residence. Neither is Panama. Both demand that you read the contract.
Before you sign: the RIF checklist
Read the governing law clause first, then the social protection clause, then the CBA reference, in that order. If the chosen law is not French, check the wage scale against an ITF-acceptable agreement. Then work through the flag-specific points:
- The governing law clause names one country's law, in writing. No clause, no signature.
- The SEA lists the shipowner's legal name and address. An agent's name alone is not enough.
- The wage scale meets or beats the CBA named in the contract, with the ILO figure of 690 US dollars basic for an AB as your floor reference.
- The social protection clause names the insurer and covers sickness, accident, maternity, invalidity and pension.
- Repatriation is spelled out as the employer's cost, with a named destination.
- The tour length respects the six-month cap, or nine months under a CBA, with the one-month operational margin stated.
- The end-of-contract allowance of two months' wages for non-residents appears, not a waiver of it.
The verified administration contacts are on our France (RIF) flag page, and the family this register belongs to, with DIS, NIS, GIS and MAR, is mapped in our guide to flags and the law in your contract.
The flag on the stern decides which law follows you aboard. What you carry up the gangway is your own call. Crew who treat sign-on day as a ritual pack a sign on set next to the documents, and a seafarer hoodie for the cold watches that come after the paperwork.
The 90 second version
This flag in one video:
How the France (RIF) 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 France (RIF) stands on the current lists:
- Paris MoU (Europe and Canada): white list, rank 7 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 (Registre International Francais (RIF) only), 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 France (RIF) 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
RIF: employment agreements for non-resident seafarers, RIF: social security of workers residing outside the EU, Code des transports, Article L5612-3, RIF fleet statistics, ILO: France ratifies the MLC, 2006, ILO: new minimum monthly wage for seafarers, ITF FOC list, and Paris MoU performance lists. This article is editorial context for seafarers, not legal advice. For a dispute under a specific contract, contact the ITF or a maritime lawyer.
FAQ
Is the France RIF a flag of convenience?
The ITF lists the "French International Ship Registry (FIS)" on its flag of convenience list, while France's first register is not listed. The reason is the employment model: non-resident crew on RIF ships are not covered by standard French labor law.
What labor law applies on a France RIF flagged ship?
Seafarers resident in France get ordinary French maritime labor law. Non-residents get the law chosen by the parties in the employment agreement, with the ILO conventions France has ratified, including MLC 2006, as the mandatory floor.
What is the minimum wage on a RIF ship?
There is no single RIF wage scale for non-residents. Pay follows the chosen law and the collective agreement named in the contract, with the ILO minimum basic wage for an able seafarer, 690 US dollars per month since 1 January 2026, as the reference floor.
How long can a contract be on a RIF ship?
The maximum period on board is six months, extendable to nine months under a collective agreement, and either limit can shift by one month for operational reasons.
Do non-resident seafarers on RIF ships get severance pay?
Yes. Under Article L.5621-15 of the French transport code, a non-resident seafarer is owed an end-of-contract allowance of at least two months' wages, unless dismissed during probation or for their own misconduct.
7SHORT1LONG® is a Seafarer Identity Brand. Tricolore on the stern, your contract's law on page one.
YES, WE ARE CREW.
Gear for the watchSeafarer T-Shirts · Crew Best SellersBuild your Sign On Set · Build your Sailor Set
