6.5 Teamwork, Conflict Resolution, Social Responsibilities & Seafarers' Rights
Key Takeaways
- Every seafarer must have a Seafarers' Employment Agreement under MLC 2006 Standard A2.1, signed by both the seafarer and the shipowner, with the seafarer holding an original signed copy.
- Recruitment and placement services must be free of charge to the seafarer under MLC 2006 Regulation 1.4; a fee charged to a seafarer for finding them a job is a breach of the Convention.
- The minimum age for work at sea is 16, and night work by seafarers under 18 is prohibited except under strictly defined conditions.
- MLC 2006 Regulation 5.1.5 requires an on-board complaint procedure, gives seafarers the right to be accompanied or represented, prohibits victimisation for making a complaint, and preserves the right to complain directly to the Master, the flag State or a port State control officer.
- The five recognised conflict-handling styles are avoiding, accommodating, competing, compromising and collaborating; collaborating produces the most durable outcome in the confined, long-duration environment of a ship.
6.5 Teamwork, Conflict Resolution, Social Responsibilities & Seafarers' Rights
Core Principle: Table A-VI/1-4 requires knowledge of the importance of maintaining good human and working relationships aboard ship, basic teamworking principles and practice, including conflict resolution, and social responsibilities; employment conditions; individual rights and obligations. A ship is a workplace you cannot leave at the end of the shift, which is what makes all three examinable.
1. Why Teamwork Is a Safety System at Sea
A merchant crew of fifteen to twenty-five people lives, eats, sleeps and works in the same steel box for four to nine months. There is no going home, no changing team, and often no shared first language. Three consequences follow:
- Small frictions compound. A dispute that would be forgotten ashore by Friday is still present at breakfast eleven weeks later.
- Interdependence is total. The person you are not speaking to is the person who is meant to tally your breathing apparatus.
- Isolation raises the stakes. No outside mediator, HR office, family or friend group is available in real time.
Basic Teamworking Principles
| Principle | What It Means in Practice |
|---|---|
| Shared goal | Everyone can state the objective of the job and what "finished safely" looks like |
| Clear roles | Every person knows their own task, and who is in charge |
| Shared mental model | The toolbox talk exists to make sure everyone's picture of the job matches |
| Mutual monitoring | Team members watch each other for error and fatigue without it being an insult |
| Backing up | Workload is redistributed when someone is overloaded, before they fail |
| Closed-loop communication | Send, read back, confirm (Section 6.4) |
| Psychological safety | People can report a mistake or raise a doubt without fear |
Teams predictably pass through forming, storming, norming and performing. On a ship with rolling crew changes a team is re-formed every few weeks, which is why a new joiner's familiarisation and first toolbox talk matter far more than they appear to.
2. Multicultural Crews
Mixed-nationality crewing is the norm. Differences that regularly cause friction, and which are worth naming openly rather than pretending do not exist:
- Directness. Some cultures treat blunt disagreement as honest; others treat it as an attack. "Yes" can mean "I hear you" rather than "I agree".
- Power distance. In some cultures a junior contradicting a senior is unthinkable — a genuine safety hazard that graded assertiveness is designed to defuse.
- Food and religious observance. Dietary requirements, fasting periods and prayer times are not preferences to be tolerated; the catering department plans around them.
- Humour and banter. Jokes rarely translate. Humour at another nationality's expense is where a great deal of shipboard bullying begins (Section 6.7).
- Personal space, volume and eye contact all vary and are all read as rudeness when they do not match.
Practical countermeasures: mixed seating in the messroom, shared recreation, marking each nationality's national days, learning greetings and basic courtesies in shipmates' languages, and a Master who visibly does not tolerate national jokes.
3. Conflict Resolution
Where Shipboard Conflict Comes From
Workload imbalance and overtime, cabin and messroom habits (noise, cleanliness, watch-keepers sleeping by day), promotion and pay differentials between nationalities, poor communication, the strain of long contracts, and personality clashes with no escape route.
The Five Handling Styles
| Style | Behaviour | When It Is Right |
|---|---|---|
| Avoiding | Withdraw, ignore | Trivial issues, or to let tempers cool before addressing it |
| Accommodating | Give way | The issue matters far more to the other person than to you |
| Competing | Impose a decision | Genuine emergencies; safety-critical orders |
| Compromising | Split the difference | Time pressure; equally strong positions |
| Collaborating | Work out a solution that meets both needs | The default at sea — it is the only style that produces a result both people can live with for eleven more weeks |
A Workable Sequence
- Cool down first. Nothing is resolved at the moment of the argument.
- Talk privately. Never in the messroom, never in front of the department.
- Describe behaviour and effect, not character. "When the workshop is left dirty at the end of the shift, I lose twenty minutes at the start of mine" — not "you are lazy".
- Listen, and check you have understood by summarising it back.
- Agree a specific action and a point at which you will review it.
- Escalate if it is unresolved — to the head of department, then the Safety Officer, then the Master, and if necessary through the on-board complaint procedure below.
4. Social Responsibilities
Being a seafarer carries obligations that go beyond the job description:
- To the ship's community: keep shared spaces clean, respect people sleeping off-watch, take your turn, and do not free-ride on shipmates' overtime.
- To the ship: comply with the Safety Management System, the drug and alcohol policy and the code of conduct; wear the PPE; report hazards and near misses.
- To the marine environment: the MARPOL obligations in Section 6.3 are personal, not just the company's.
- To the law of the port: local law applies ashore. Smuggling, drugs and contraband can cost the individual their liberty and the ship its schedule.
- To your successors: hand over the watch, the job and the equipment in the state you would want to receive them.
5. Employment Conditions and Individual Rights (MLC 2006)
The Maritime Labour Convention 2006 — the "seafarers' bill of rights" — is the fourth pillar of international maritime regulation alongside SOLAS, MARPOL and STCW. Table A-VI/1-4 requires knowledge of employment conditions and individual rights and obligations, and this is where they live.
| Right or Condition | MLC Provision | What It Means for You |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum age | Reg 1.1 | 16 years; night work by under-18s prohibited except in defined cases |
| Medical certificate | Reg 1.2 | Valid certificate required before working at sea |
| Free recruitment | Reg 1.4 | Recruitment and placement services must be free of charge to the seafarer — no job-finding fees |
| Employment agreement | Std A2.1 | A signed Seafarers' Employment Agreement (SEA); the seafarer holds an original signed copy; terms must be clear and available for inspection |
| Wages | Std A2.2 | Paid at monthly intervals and in full; allotments may be sent home |
| Hours of work and rest | Std A2.3 | See Section 6.6 |
| Leave | Reg 2.4 | Paid annual leave; shore leave for the benefit of health and well-being |
| Repatriation | Reg 2.5 | Right to be repatriated at no cost; maximum service on board before repatriation is less than 12 months; financial security for abandonment must be certified and posted on board |
| Accommodation, food and water | Title 3 | Decent accommodation; food and drinking water free of charge during engagement |
| Medical care | Reg 4.1 | Medical care on board and ashore, comparable to that available to shore workers |
| Shipowner liability | Reg 4.2 | Financial protection for sickness, injury or death arising in service |
| Health, safety and accident prevention | Reg 4.3 | A safe working environment, risk assessment and safety committee |
| On-board complaint procedure | Reg 5.1.5 | See below |
The Maritime Labour Certificate and the Declaration of Maritime Labour Compliance (DMLC) must be posted in a conspicuous place on board.
The On-Board Complaint Procedure
Every ship must have a written complaint procedure, a copy of which is given to every seafarer. It guarantees:
- The right to complain directly to the Master and to the shipowner.
- The right to be accompanied or represented while the complaint is dealt with.
- The right to complain to the flag State authority or to a port State control officer — a route that does not depend on the company's cooperation.
- Protection against victimisation. Penalising a seafarer for making a complaint in good faith is itself a breach of the Convention.
Exam Watchout: the complaint procedure question usually tests two points — that a seafarer may go outside the ship (to the flag State or a PSC officer) and that retaliation is prohibited. Both matter directly to the violence and harassment reporting pathways in Section 6.7.
A seafarer is asked by a manning agency to pay a fee before being placed on a vessel. What does the Maritime Labour Convention 2006 say about this?
A rating wishes to complain about persistent unfair overtime allocation and is worried about the consequences. Under MLC 2006 Regulation 5.1.5, which statement is correct?
Two ratings from different departments have an escalating dispute over messroom noise during off-watch sleeping hours. Which conflict-handling style is generally most appropriate on board, and why?
Which of the following is a right guaranteed to every seafarer by the Maritime Labour Convention 2006?