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Crewing

STCW and crewing

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Three separate sets of rules decide who is on a ship and on what terms. People often mix them up. STCW says what each seafarer must be able to do. The flag state’s minimum safe manning document says how many seafarers the ship needs. The Maritime Labour Convention says how they are employed, paid and sent home. You can only answer a crewing question once you know which of the three it belongs to.

What STCW is

STCW is the International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers. It was adopted on 7 July 1978 and came into force on 28 April 1984. It was the first treaty to set international minimum qualifications for masters, officers and watch crew. Before it, the standard was whatever each flag state decided.

A conference in 1995 reorganised it, and the technical detail moved into the STCW Code. Part A of the Code is mandatory, and Part B is recommended guidance. The 2010 Manila amendments are the version in force. They were adopted in June 2010 and apply from 1 January 2012. They made medical standards and anti-fraud measures stricter, revised the rules on work and rest, added certificates for able seafarers, and brought in training for equipment and work that the 1978 text did not cover. This includes electronic chart systems, tankers and polar operations.

Certificates, and who really issues them

A seafarer holds a certificate of competency for a rank. Extra certificates of proficiency cover specific tasks, such as tanker operations, survival craft or advanced firefighting. The convention sets the standard, but a flag state issues the certificate, not the IMO.

This leads to an arrangement that surprises people at first. A ship’s officers often hold certificates from their own country. The ship’s flag state then issues an endorsement that recognises each certificate for work on its ships. So an officer with a national certificate but no endorsement from the ship’s flag is not properly certified for that ship, however experienced he is. Port state control inspectors find this often. It is a paperwork failure rather than a failure of skill.

The flag state must also show the IMO that its training and certificate system meets the convention. This is one of the things that separates a serious register from one that exists only on paper. See flag states for what else that difference means.

Manning is not an STCW number

STCW does not say how many people a ship must carry. That is set by the minimum safe manning document. The flag state issues it for each ship. It lists the ranks and numbers the ship needs to operate safely, based on its size, machinery, automation and trade.

It is a minimum, a lower limit, not a plan. A ship at the minimum has no spare people. If an officer falls ill, must go home urgently, or is refused a visa at a crew change port, the ship no longer meets the document and cannot sail. At this point crewing stops being paperwork and becomes an operational problem. That is why crew changes are planned at ports where they actually work, not at the port that needs the shortest detour.

Rest hours

The rule most likely to come up in a business conversation is hours of rest. Under the STCW Code as amended in Manila, a seafarer who keeps watches must have at least 10 hours of rest in any 24 hour period and 77 hours in any 7 day period. The 10 hours may be split into no more than two periods, and one of them must be at least six hours long. The gap between two rest periods must not be more than 14 hours. Limited exceptions allow a third period under stated conditions, but they are exceptions, not a normal schedule.

A desk should understand two results of this. First, rest hours limit how long a ship can keep up heavy port work with its current crew. This is a real limit on non-stop cargo work, and on how many berth moves or notices the crew can handle in a day. Second, inspectors check rest hour records. False records almost always lead to a finding (a fault recorded by the inspector). Usually the false record is a sign that the crew is at the minimum number, not a sign of dishonesty.

MLC is the other convention

The Maritime Labour Convention, 2006 came into force on 20 August 2013. It covers employment: the seafarers’ employment agreement, wages, hours, leave, cabins, food, medical care, the journey home, and financial security if a shipowner abandons the crew. It is often called the fourth pillar of maritime rules. This means it is one of the four main conventions, together with SOLAS, MARPOL and STCW.

The split between STCW and MLC is clear. If the question is whether someone is qualified to keep a watch, it is STCW. If the question is whether they have been paid, whether they can go home, or whether the ship owes them anything, it is MLC. Port state control inspects both, and MLC findings, especially unpaid wages, can lead to the ship being detained.

Where crewing affects a fixture

Most of the time crewing does not affect a fixture, and that is the right starting point. The owner provides the crew, and the charterer pays for what the ship does. Four things do affect the fixture.

Crew nationality clauses. Some charterers name nationalities, or require the crew to be covered by an ITF acceptable agreement (a contract the seafarers’ union federation accepts). Usually this is because a union or a terminal at the discharge port would otherwise cause a delay. Check this term when you agree the fixture, so that it does not cause a surprise at the berth.

Crew changes and deviation. A crew change costs time and may need a detour. Under a time charter, the question is who pays for that time, and the charterparty answers it, not the convention.

Certification and off hire. If a ship cannot sail because it lacks a certified officer, it is failing to perform. The off hire clause, which says when the charterer stops paying hire, settles this.

The record. Faults under STCW and MLC go into the same inspection history as everything else. If a ship has repeated crew-related findings under one manager, that tells you something about the manager. The ISM Code gives the same information from a different angle.

What none of this settles

None of these conventions makes a crew good. They set a minimum for qualifications, a minimum for numbers and a minimum for treatment. A ship can meet all three minimums and still be run badly. The useful information for a commercial desk is not the certificates, which every trading ship has, but the pattern of findings against them over time, and the name of the company responsible for the people who hold them.

References

Flag states and open registriesA flag decides whose law and whose certificates a ship carries. Open registries are ordinary business and do not prove anything on their own. The ISM Code and the DOC holderEvery ship has one company legally responsible for running it safely. Knowing which company that is tells you more than the registered owner does. Port state control and detentionsA detained ship cannot do its job. What an inspection records, and how to read a ship's record without judging it on a single inspection. Who is who on a fixtureA dozen parties, several called the owner and two called the agent. Who gives instructions to whom, and who you may phone.

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