When a voyage goes well, nobody asks who the employer is. The wages arrive, the contract ends, and the seafarer signs off. When something goes wrong, it is the first question anyone asks, and often the hardest one to answer. A seafarer injured on board, left unpaid, or abandoned in a foreign port may find that the company named on the contract has no office, no assets and no one answering the phone.
This is not an accident. Modern ship ownership is often built in layers, and each layer can sit in a different country. Understanding those layers before you sign on is the best protection you have.
The registered owner. Many ships are owned by a company that owns that one ship and nothing else. It is often registered in a country such as Panama, Liberia or the Marshall Islands, and the ship flies that country’s flag. Where the flag state has little real connection with the owner, this is called a flag of convenience. The owning company may exist only on paper.
The manager and DOC holder. Under the ISM Code, the company that has taken responsibility for operating the ship holds a Document of Compliance (DOC). This company runs the ship day to day and is often based in Singapore, Hong Kong, Cyprus or Greece. It may be a different company from the registered owner.
The “shipowner” under MLC 2006. The Maritime Labour Convention defines the shipowner as the owner or any other organisation, such as a manager or bareboat charterer, that has taken over responsibility for operating the ship and agreed to take on the duties the convention imposes. This is the party named on the ship’s Maritime Labour Certificate. It may be the manager, or yet another company.
The employer named in your contract. Your Seafarer Employment Agreement (SEA) may name a crewing or employment company in Singapore, Hong Kong or elsewhere, which is different again from all of the above.
The Indian recruitment agency. The agency that recruited you holds a Recruitment and Placement Services Licence (RPSL) from the Directorate General of Maritime Administration (DGMA), formerly the Directorate General of Shipping. Its signature on your contract often reads “as agents only” or “for and on behalf of” a foreign principal.
So a single ship can involve five different companies in four different countries. When a claim arises, each may point to another.
A legal claim needs a party that can be identified, brought before a court, and made to pay. A single-ship company registered abroad may have no assets except the ship. A foreign employer may have no presence in India. The contract may say that disputes must be decided under a foreign law or in a foreign court. Each of these adds cost, argument and delay, and delay is the enemy of every seafarer claim.
An Indian agency that signs “as agents” is saying that it is not a party to the contract and that only the foreign principal is bound. That is not always the end of the matter.
Under Section 230 of the Indian Contract Act, 1872, an agent is ordinarily not personally bound by contracts made for its principal. The same section, however, presumes that the agent is personally bound in certain cases, including where the principal is not disclosed, and where the principal, though disclosed, cannot be sued. A paper company abroad with no reachable presence may fall squarely within that description.
Separately, an RPSL agency is a licensed body with its own obligations under Indian recruitment and placement rules, and it answers to the DGMA, which can act against its licence. MLC 2006 also requires countries to ensure that recruitment agencies have insurance or an equivalent system to compensate seafarers for monetary loss caused by the failure of the agency, or of the shipowner, to meet its obligations. The words “as agents” on a contract do not remove these duties.
The ship itself. Under the Admiralty (Jurisdiction and Settlement of Maritime Claims) Act, 2017, a claim for wages carries a maritime lien on the ship. The ship can be arrested when it is in Indian waters, whoever owns it on paper, and it stays arrested until security is provided. In defined cases another ship in the same ownership can be arrested instead. The ship does not care how many companies stand behind it.
MLC financial security. Every ship covered by MLC 2006 must carry two certificates of financial security, usually provided by the ship’s P&I club. One covers abandonment, including unpaid wages and repatriation, under Standard A2.5.2. The other covers contractual compensation for death and long-term disability, under Standard A4.2.1. The convention requires these schemes to allow a seafarer to claim directly from the provider. The certificates name the provider and its contact details.
Complaints to authorities. A seafarer can complain to the flag state, to the port state where the ship is, and in India to the DGMA, including against the RPSL agency. The DGMA runs a 24×7 helpline, listed below with the firm’s own seafarer line.
None of this prevents a dispute. It means that if one arises, you and your family know exactly who to pursue, and nobody can hide behind a name on a letterhead.
The DGMA and ISWAN services are free, independent services and are not connected with this firm.
This note is for general information only. It does not constitute legal advice, and no lawyer-client relationship arises from it. If you or a family member are facing a problem with wages, injury or abandonment, please contact the firm directly.
For specific questions on a matter, rather than general commentary, please contact the firm directly.