Wages • SEAs

• Right to wages
• Seafarers' employment agreements
• Model employment agreement
• Collective bargaining agreements
• Foreign maritime labour law

Right to wages

According to Standard A2.2 of the Maritime Labour Convention and Section 39 of the "Seearbeitsgesetz" (maritime labour act), seafarers have a legal right to their monthly wages from their employer. German law regulates the regular payment of wages in the "Seearbeitsgesetz" (maritime labour act).

You can have your wage or a part of it transferred to family members or other people. If the wage is paid in a different currency, the shipowner has to adhere to the official currency exchange rate.

Wages on German-flagged ships do not automatically follow a collective bargaining agreement. Collective bargaining wages only get paid if:

• the shipping company is a member of the collective bargaining agreement community of the German Shipowners' Association (VDR) and the respective seafarer is a member of the ver.di trade union, or
• the individual seafarer’s employment agreement (SEA) provides for the application of a collective bargaining agreement.

If a seafarer is unfit to work due to illness or injury, the shipowner must continue to pay wages for 16 weeks. On seagoing ships under German flag, the wages have to be paid in full for six weeks. From the 7th week, the wages are reduced to the amount of the "illness benefit" paid by the statutory health insurance (70 % of the average wage, not more than 90 % of the latest net wages). Seafarers who are members of the German statutory health insurance receive the "illness benefit" from their insurance.

If a shipowner or employer does not fulfil or only insufficiently fulfils his or her obligation to pay wages, crew members on sea-going ships under German flag have several options to take action, among which are the following:

• They make use of their comprehensive right to complain
• They assert their maritime lienor's rights. We have compiled an Information on maritime lienor's rights according to German law.

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Seafarer's employment agreements

Seafarers working on a sea-going vessel must have a seafarer’s employment agreement (SEA) in writing with their employer or shipowner. The standard A2.1 of the Maritime Labour Convention (MLC) and Section 28 of the Maritime Labour Act (German Seearbeitsgesetz) stipulate the minimum contents of these SEAs:

• the seafarer’s full name, date of birth and birthplace,
• the shipowner’s name and address,
• the capacity in which the seafarer is to be employed,
• the amount of the seafarer’s wages or, where applicable, the formula used for calculating them,
• the amount of paid annual leave,
• the termination of the agreement and the conditions thereof (in case of temporary agreements: date of expiry of the agreement),
• the health and social security protection benefits to be provided to the seafarer by the shipowner,
• the seafarer’s entitlement to repatriation,
• reference to the collective bargaining agreement, if applicable,
• any other particulars which national law may require; in German law: the date when the SEA commences, the place and date where and when service is taken up as well as agreed hours of work and rest.

The seafarer must be given ample opportunity to check the conditions of the employment agreement before signing. Shipping companies are obliged to keep copies of the employment agreement on board for inspection purposes.

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Model employment agreement

We have compiled a non-binding

Model Employment Agreement

for sea-going ships under German Flag. This specimen contains all minimum requirements of the German Maritime Labour Act and the MLC. You can add to or adapt the model SEA as approriate.

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Collective bargaining agreements 

There are no collective bargaining agreements that apply automatically on German-flagged ships. They only apply, if:

• the shipping company is a member of the collective bargaining agreement community of the German Shipowners' Association (VDR) and individual seafarers are members of the ver.di trade union, or
• their application is expressly agreed in the employment agreement.

The "Manteltarifvertrag See" (MTV See) is the recognized contractual framework for German maritime shipping. It contains regulations of long-term and more general character regarding the working conditions of seafarers and its period of validity is not restricted. Fixed wage levels are provided in the Heuertarifvertrag See (HTV See). The HTV See runs for a shorter period of time and is adjusted regularly.

The current collective bargaining agreements are available for download:

• Manteltarifvertrag See (MTV See),
• Wage Scale for German Maritime Shipping (HTV-See) 2026: valid from 01.01.2026 - 31.12.2026
• Wage Scale for German Maritime Shipping (HTV-See) 2027: valid from 01.01.2027 - 31.12.2027

Foreign maritime labour law

On board of German-flagged seagoing ships, generally, German maritime labour law applies. However for non-EU seafarers foreign wages as well as the application of foreign labour rights and foreign collective bargaining agreement rights can be agreed on. The scope of such an agreement based on foreign law is admissible under the German Flag Act section 21 paragraph 4 when the ship flys the German flag, it is however clearly restricted:

• the minimum standards of the Maritime Labour Convention (MLC) must be complied with in any case,
• German fundamental rights must not be violated,
• areas of legislation of special public interest (mandatory rules) must not be impaired by the foreign law. Therefore, German law stringently applies in the following areas, among others:
• Continued payment of wages in case of illness
• Accommodation and catering
• Medical and social care
• Occupational safety and accident prevention
• Maximum working hours and minimum hours of rest
• Repatriation
• Legal protection of women and young persons
• Employment protection rights for crew members’ representatives
• Order on board.

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