C2.1.b. Does the MLC, 2006 require seafarers to have a copy of the original signed seafarers’ employment agreement (SEA) on board ship?

Standard A2.1, paragraph 1(c) of the MLC, 2006 requires that the shipowner and the seafarer concerned each have a signed original of the seafarers’ employment agreement, without specifying that this original should be “on board”. Since Standard A2.1, paragraphs 1(d) and 2, only require a copy of the agreement and of any applicable collective bargaining agreement to be available on board, one would assume that no originals need be maintained on board unless the national law concerned specifies otherwise. Questions have arisen about whether in the context of international industry with shipowners and seafarer based in different countries, the signature of the shipowner or the shipowner’s representative [see C2.1.e.] must be an original signature or whether it could be an electronic signature. The question of acceptability of an electronic signature in the context of the SEA is one of the many details of general contract law (the appointment of a representative is another such question, for example) that are left by the Convention to be determined by the national law and practice of the flag State (or other law which the flag State recognizes as applying to the SEA).

Seafarers’ employment agreements