Legal assistance to seafarers and their families

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We are a team of specialists in the field of international legal relations. Our maritime lawyers have extensive experience in  Maritime Law. The significant experience of our people, which is over 20 years, allows our law office to achieve maximum results for our clients.

Services of our law office:

 - recovery of compensation for injury or illness of a seafarer;

 - recovery of compensation for the death or loss of a seafarer;

 - recovery of seamen’s wages;

The main task and motto of our team is searching the ideal solutions and rendering services within the shortest terms with a view to secure our client’s interests, as well as permanent aid and support in efficient conducting of marine activity in Ukraine and abroad. Recipe of success of our activity is success and prosperity of our clients.

We have a network of correspondent law firms all over the world, what allows us to help clients in their disputes with foreign companies. 

More about our services

The main area of our activity isprovision of legal assistance to seamen. The services provided by our specialists consist of advising seafarers and members of their families by maritime lawyers on such issues as:

 - Collection of wages owed to the seafarersby shipowners;

 - Compensation in connection with the damage to the health of a seafarer due tohis work on a ship and loss of ability to work as a result of an injury,

 - Death and loss of a seaman at sea;

 - Negotiating on behalf of a seafarer or a member of his family with the shipowner, insurance company or their representatives;

 - Representing the interests of a seafarer or a member of his family in a court,

 - Arrest of ships for the claim’s security on behalf of seafarers and their families.

An individual approach to each case allows us to achieve the highest possible amounts and compensations for seafarers and their families.

Our clients and partners

Our office works closely with seafarers' unions around the world and, of course, with ITF, an international organization created to protect the rights of transport workers, including seafarers. Also, our long-term partner is the Assol Charitable Foundation for Assistance to Seafarers, based in Odessa, Ukraine.

We, together with the seafarers' trade unions, Assol Foundation and ITF, provide legal assistance to seafarers and protect their individual rights and interests. In cases where a seafarer needs urgent assistance in protecting his rights abroad, we involve our partners - foreign law firmsand also recommend the seafarer to independently contact the ITF inspector at the location of the ship.

If the ITF inspector in any port has received a complaint from a seafarer, he will organize an examination of the circumstances set out in the seafarer's application with a visit to the vessel on which labor standards were violated.

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Frequently asked questions

 

What are the conditions for reimbursement of compensation of sick wages and medical expenses in connection with an injury / illness on board a ship?

The conditions and procedure for paying sick wages and medical expenses to a seafarer in the event of illness or injury on board a ship are governed by his EmploymentContract and Collective Agreement. After a seafarer has been discharged from the ship as a result of injury/illness and repatriated for further treatment to his home country the shipowner is obliged to pay sick wages in the amount of the basic wage rate. It should be noted that the basis for receiving sick wagesand reimbursement of expenses incurred for medical treatment is signing off from the ship due to deterioration in health and the inability to perform labor duties. Please note that the payment of sickness benefit is carried out on the basis of the opinion of the attending physicianand the reimbursement of medical expenses is based on payment documents confirming the costs of treatment (checks). The terms of the Employment Contract and the Collective Agreement may provide for a specific period during which the shipowner pays the seafarer sick wages and compensates for medical expenses, some contracts may establish the obligation of the shipowner to pay these payments until the seafarer is fully restored to health or becomes disabled. If, as a result of illness, a seafarer has permanently lost the ability to work / received a disability, he has the right to demand payment of compensation in connection with the permanent disability.

What to do if the shipowner does not pay wages for a long time?

If the shipowner does not pay wages for a long time (several months)and the contract is already coming to an endthen in this case the seafarer should first of all write to the name of the Master an application for signing off due to the expiration of the contract and payment of the outstanding wages. If there is no reaction from the shipowner you need to contact the administration of the country of the flag and the Maritime Trade Union. Before leaving the ship it is imperative to require a certificate confirming the outstanding amount of salary. If such a certificate is in the hands of the sailor it will be much easier to prove the fact of non-payment in court.

What should I do if I get injured on board?

In order to confirm the injury directly during the period of work on the vessel it is necessary to demand copies of the confirmation documents from the shipowner. Most seafarers' employment contracts stipulate that if a seafarer is injured, the shipowner is required to provide an appropriate medical care and, if necessary, arrange the hospitalization. In this case in order to ensure the payment of compensation for medical expenses a seafarer must receive from the medical institution where he underwent treatment documents containing the diagnosis, the circumstances of his admission to the medical institution the treatment provided. Most contracts provide that during this period before the seafarer is repatriated home he must be paid the full rate of wages.

How much can the relatives of the deceased sailor expect to receive?

Most collective agreements contain a provision that payment of compensation for the death of a seafarer is made to the beneficiary appointed by the seafarer before leaving for the voyage. This is done by the seafarer indicating the name of the “next of kin” in the Employment Contract or in the Application Form. As a rule, the correct filling of the “next of kin” column avoids disputes between the relatives of the deceased sailor about who is entitled to compensation for his death. The amount of compensation is provided for by the Employment Contract and the Collective Agreement, and therefore the amount of payments for each specific case may differ. The amounts of compensation in connection with the death of a seafarer in the recommended pro forma Collective Agreements of the International Transport Workers Federation (ITF) are about 108,000 US dollars to the beneficiary and about 21,000 US dollars for each child under 18 years old (maximum four). However, not all vessels are covered by the ITF collective agreement, and therefore in our practice we have repeatedly met contracts that provide for much smaller amounts (20,000 - 40,000 US dollars).
 

Maxim A. Kocherzhenko

      The reimbursement of damages for the seamen's injuries and deaths is a rather topical problem both for shipowners and for seamen. This brings us to the necessity to analyze the existing situation from the legal viewpoint.

      As the practice goes in case of the seaman's injury or death a one-time compensation is payable where the amounts of compensations are usually set in the employment contracts or collective agreements. But how to estimate the amount of the disability or the death compensation if there is no reference to these payments in the employment contract or a collective agreement? In order to do so we have to look into the active Ukrainian legislation.

     Up to the 21 November 2002, the assessment of the sums due and payable to the employees (seafarers including) or to their relatives as a compensation for damage to health and death of the employee, related to fulfillment of his labour duties, has been governed by the Law of Ukraine “On Labour Protection”. This law established the order, forms, as well as the amounts of compensation to be paid by the owners of the enterprises for damage to health and for the death of all categories of workers.

   On the 21 November 2002, the Ukrainian Parliament adopted the Law of Ukraine “On Insertions Of Amendments Into The Law Of Ukraine “On Labour Protection”, which enacted that henceforth damage to health or death of employee must be compensated in accordance with the Law of Ukraine “On Compulsory State Insurance Against Professional Accidents and Occupational Diseases Resulted In Disability”.

   The aforementioned law set the procedure, forms and amounts of compensation for damage to health and for the death of workers. At that, the said compensation is paid by the Accident Social Insurance Fond, not by the owners of the enterprises, and only to those workers, for whom their enterprises pay social insurance fees.

   Therefore, upon coming into force of the Law of Ukraine “On Insertions Of Amendments Into The Law Of Ukraine “On Labour Protection”, dated 21.11.2002, the point as to the amount of compensation for damage to be paid to workers, who are employed at enterprises that do not pay insurance fees to the Accident Social Insurance Fond turned out to be left undefined. Seafarers who sign employment contracts with foreign shipowners and serve on foreign flagged vessels can be referred to the above-mentioned category of workers. 

     Civil Code of Ukraine is the only law in Ukraine, which now can be applied to the procedure of damage compensation caused by injury or another damage to the health of a seafarers who work in a foreign shipping company.

     According to the Civil Code of Ukraine compensation for damages are effected by monthly payments in the amount of lost seafarer’s wages which were lost by him due to the professional or general disability. The amount of seafarer’s lost wages to be compensated is determined as a percentage of average monthly wages that the victim had before the injury or another damage to health, taking into account the degree of seafarer’s disability. The average wages are calculated at the request of the victim for twelve or the last three calendar months of work. The lost earnings include all types of remuneration under the employment contract, excluding compensation for unused vacation and severance pay.

     Thus, calculating the amount of damage, caused to the health of the seafarer, it is necessary to consider not only the basic wages, but also a fixed or guaranteed overtime.

     According to the Civil Code of Ukraine in addition to the lost wages the injured seafarer is entitled to the additional costs caused by the need of high-calorie diet, sanatorium and health resorts, purchase of medicines, prosthetics, nursing care, etc. 

    Also, the Civil Code of Ukraine provides the victim (seafarer) with the right to claim moral damages.

    In case of the seafarer’s death persons who are entitled to the compensation for damage receive average monthly wages of the victim with the deduction of share which was due to the victim and able-bodied persons, which were maintained by him. The family can also claim moral damages.

   In addition, the shipowner must reimburse the funeral expenses and the costs of the memorial construction to the person who has incurred these expenses.