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Seafarers' Employment Procedures in Crewing Companies

Article  in  Journal of Applied Economic Sciences · December 2012

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Cristina Dragomir Utureanu Simona

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Seafarers’ Employment Procedures in Crewing Companies
Dragomir Cristina, Utureanu Simona
Universitatea Maritimă din Constanţa, Universitatea „Ovidius” din Constanţa
economie.umc@gmail.com, simona_utureanu@yahoo.com
Abstract
This paper presents the case-study of
seafarers’ employment procedures applied at
a Romanian crewing company. The
observations made are completed with
employment practices in other world regions.
Cuvinte cheie: employment, seafarers,
human resources management, maritime
transport
Clasificare J.E.L.: J39, J41, J53
1. Introduction
Through activities of recruitment and
employment the crewing companies makes
arrangements to identify human resources
with work potential for owners with whom
they collaborate. Crewing companies hire
seafarers in the interest of ship owners who
require these services. In order to be
employed, recruited seafarers must meet
minimum competency requirements
established by international regulations and
those set by ship owners.
2. Research methodology
This paper presents the procedure of
seafarers’ employment as observed at a
crewing company from Constanta during
March 2010. The observation time period
was of one month. Beside the noted
observations, the research methods consist in
interviews made with the General Manager
and the Recruitment Assistant, related to the
employment procedures. The crewing agency
was established in 2008 and is a small size
company with Romanian private ownership.
The number of office employees is below
ten. The seafarers’ database at the moment of
observation was over 75 recruits.
At the request of the General Manager, the
name of the company remains confidential.
“Ovidius” University Annals, Economic Sciences Series
Volume XII, Issue 2 /2012
The conclusions of the observations and
interviews are described below.
3. Seafarers’ employment procedures
in Romanian crewing companies
After finding a potential ship owner (the
client that has ships and needs manning), the
representatives from the case-studied crewing
company informs the owner of all the details
concerning the competences of the person to
be employed and if the owner confirms the
acceptance of employment, there are required
data about ship type, voyage and
approximate period of boarding. There are
also requested and received other information
that should be known by seafarers regarding
the employment conditions. Following, after
the CV selection and hiring interviews, the
candidates will perform a complete medical
visit to an authorized medical center. If the
medical test results are considered
satisfactory by the shipowner it follows the
confirmation from both the employer
(shipowner) and employee (seafarer) of
boarding acceptance under the established
conditions.
From this point starts the legal steps of
hiring and the human resources department is
responsible for sending the letter of
employment confirmation.
When the letter is sent to the employee the
payroll office must be informed on the
modality of wage pay: by monthly payments
or by payment on board.
Promptness of wage payment or of other
amounts such as transportation costs is a vital
element of shipowner - seafarer relationship
because the seafarer expects the payment is
performed regularly in a bank account or
directly to the onshore family. It is therefore
very important to have a proper flow of
information between the human resources
department and the payroll office regarding
the status of seafarers. Depending on how
wages will be paid, the payroll office must
 “Ovidius” University Annals, Economic Sciences Series
Volume XII, Issue 2 /2012

know the date on which the salary is paid and all necessary formalities regarding both crew
any subsequent amendments regarding salary exchange and repatriated seafarers. Any crew
or other expenses resulting from increases or change must be economical and efficient.
decreases of annual salary, salary increases
resulting from promotion to senior positions, Fig.1. Employee’s documents checking list
promotions, payments during shore waiting
EMPLOYEE’S DOCUMENTS
for finding a ship, sick pay, payments for
CHECKING LIST
conducting courses at the company's request,
vacation pay, studies pay to obtain requested
Name of the employee:
IMO certificates, bonuses payment for
Completed by: Date:
additional qualifications, pension schemes or
Val
transport costs.
abil
Once the seafarer was hired the next step
Document ity
is to appoint him/her on a ship. The biggest
responsibility of the HR department is to  Employment form
maintain a complete and adequate crew on
 Seaman book
each ship.
Before the development of E-era one of
the most effective ways of allocating crew  Certificate of competency
was preparing the individual records that Graduating certificates for
indicate the date of boarding and  trainings
disembarking of each ship. These sheets were Endorsement attesting
arranged in the space allocated for each the issue of a certificate of
vessel for those who were on board. Similar competency according to
facilities existed for those who were on leave,  STCW Convention
those in training, the sick, etc., so that the IMO training according to
human resources department had at any time  available job
a correct picture on staff and could decide Physical examination
when and where would be the crew change.  certificate
The introduction of computers led to an
increase in information that is at reach of  Passport
human resources department. With the help  2 photos passport type
of computer programs can be selected staff
by age, experience on various types of ships, Characterization rom previous
preparedness, leave and effective leave until  job
the date is needed to be prepared a new crew  Work contract  
exchange.
The seafarer is ready to embark after is Boarding contract -
checked the availability and validity of  commitment statement  
seafarers’ documents and after is made a
training specific to the ship or voyage. When  Job description  
appropriate, the company makes
arrangements for obtaining the flag acts.  Occupational safety sheet  
For each employee is made a training
related to work safety. The records signed for  Medical record  
confirmation of training are then stored in the
file of each employee. A copy of the Signature ___________________
employee file or of the updated modifications
from the personal file is sent to the master of Human Resources Manager 
the ship, at boarding. The master must update
the information in the crew file aboard at Source: Analyzed crewing agency
every crew change.
Another important task of the HR Changes must be made with the maximum
department is to select personnel to be sent number of crew members at the same time to
aboard ship for crew exchange and to make benefit from reduced travel expenses and to

reduce the effort made to prepare these
exchanges. Crew exchanges must be
performed as close as possible to the place
where crew was recruited to minimize costs.
Unlike land-based personnel, most
seafarers are reimbursed travel expenses to
and from the ship or shipowner has its own
ways to solve this problem. Such expenses
associated with travel must be approved by
the Human Resources Department prior to
payment. Each company has a system of
expenditure control and therefore all
expenses that can be recovered by seafarer
must be noted in the employment contract in
order to avoid litigation. This is part of the
company policy and most likely is the result
of negotiations between owners and unions.
New employees must be trained to
perform their duties effectively. There is a
philosophy that systematic and progressive
training combined with continuous education
is a sound investment as will attract people
who want to be trained and will help create a
stable and motivated crew.
Another particular company policy is the
decision to promote on merit rather than on
seniority. In this case, decisions have to be
based on subjective assessments. Promotion
on merit may have one disadvantage
compared with the old idea of promotion by
seniority. Today there is less stability and
young officers change their employing
company frequently. The company is not
able to make a good assessment of potential
if young officers change companies too often
[1]. Large number of individuals who leave
too soon seafaring at the case-studied
Romanian company lead to not justified
training expenditures and indicates that the
promotion was not selective enough.
4. Employment practices in other world
regions
Different recruitment practices are adopted
in different world regions and some of them
can be considered discriminative. For
example, the recruitment and training
experienced by Asian women are
significantly different than in the case of
European women. Asian women depend
upon friends and relatives for information
and rely mainly on crewing agents, not only
for recruitment but also for training [2].
Women in Western Europe, North
“Ovidius” University Annals, Economic Sciences Series
Volume XII, Issue 2 /2012
America and other developed countries are
evidently better supported with information
and infrastructure to seek employment
opportunities. Crewing agencies are
relatively better regulated and make profit
primarily by charging the employing
shipping companies rather than individual
seafarers. Seafarers from these countries
usually have clearly defined posts, are
employed under specified terms and
conditions, and their typical contract length is
4-6 months. Some companies have begun to
adopt progressive policies to encourage
women’s participation in this sector. In
contrast, many crewing agencies in Asia,
Eastern Europe, Africa and developing
countries in other world regions make huge
profits out of the seafarers. A common
practice is to charge each new recruit for
their return airfare, medical examination,
seafarer’s book, visa and an administrative
fee [3]. The bigger and better regulated
crewing agents in Asia and Eastern Europe
tend to have a steady pool of seafarers for
their main clients and these seafarers are
trained or retrained before they sign on ships.
In this case, there is usually no charge
incurred for the seafarers. But there are many
small and less sophisticated crewing agents
which often charge seafarers, in violation of
accepted standards and legislation, for their
service and overcharge for substandard
training. In the Philippines, according to a
study conducted in 1998 on seafarers
employed in a major cruise company based
in Miami, it is typical for a seafarer, woman
or man, to pay an agency fee of 45 000 – 60
000 pesos (1200-1500 USD) to get a job on a
cruise ship. The money is said to cover the
return trip airfare with an open return ticket,
the seafarer’s visa and the medical exam
totalling 1100-1300 USD. The difference
goes to the agent.
Many seafarers therefore were already
deep in debt before they even arrived on ship.
In many cases, discriminative standards were
set for women. In the Philippines, a major
“manning agency” refused to accept
application from “any women of 35 years old
or above”, whereas the maximum age limit
for men was set at 50. Age recruitments for
women are much stricter than those set for
men. Maximum age limits and minimum
years of service in hotels or restaurants (12
months in most cases) are usually set to
 “Ovidius” University Annals, Economic Sciences Series
Volume XII, Issue 2 /2012

ensure that the industry gets a young,
energetic but experienced workforce. In the
Philippines, the age limit for men to be
employed on cruise ships in 40 years old,
while for women is 29 [4].
Typically, the length of the contract is four
to six months for women from developed
countries, and 9-12 months for women from
developing countries. For the same post,
women from developing countries are
consistently paid much less than those from
developed countries [5].
Seafarers in Criuse Shipping, available at
http://www.aos-
world.org/library/rio/Rio24en.pdf, accessed
at 19.11.2012
[6] Iordanoaia, F., Batrinca, G., Arsenie, P.,
Hanzu-Pazara, R., Barsan, E., Surugiu, F.,
Branza, G., Managementul resurselor umane
din învăţământul universitar de marină, Ed.
Nautica, Constanţa, 2010, p. 14.

5. Conclusions

The tendency of development new types

of employment contracts is given the fact that
there is no security or stability of
employment and hence will result in a high
turnover of staff, which will have significant
implications on maritime organizations [6].
In this paper were presented standard
hiring procedures applied by one of the many
Romanian crewing agencies. Based on the
observations made on-site, at the office of the
crewing agency, we can conclude that the
employment procedures are not
discriminative like in other cases of crewing
agencies described in chapter four of this
paper.
Nevertheless, there are crewing agencies
in Romania that unjustifiably demands return
airfare, seafarer’s book or administrative
fees, at least at the moment of initial
registration of seafarer in the agency’s
database. Other agencies send obligatory the
seafarers for medical examination only to
specific medical companies. The occurrence
of such agencies is encouraged by the fact
that national regulations are not yet
restrictive in this domain.

6. References
[1] Sadler, J., Discipline at Sea and Industrial
Relations in the Shipping Industry, 1st
Edition, Brown Son & Ferguson Ltd.,
Glasgow, Great Britain, 1983, p.117.
[2] Sharkosi, J., Manning and training in the
cruise industry, speech made at the Third
LSM Asia-Pacific Manning and Training
Conference, Manila, 5 November 1999.
[3] Mather, C.,, Sweatships, War on Want and
International Transport Workers Federation,
2002.
[4] Goff, D., A view of life below deck at Carnival
Cruise Lines, ITF, London, 1998.
[5] Zhao, M., Globalisation and Women

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