Concern Over Wages Despite Positive MLC Enforcement
Specialist marine insurance intermediary Seacurus says that overall confidence in the successful implementation of the Maritime Labour Convention 2006 (MLC) should not conceal the fact that there is continuing concern over the risk of abandonment and the timely payment of crew wages. Thomas Brown, managing director of Seacurus, says, “Recent figures from the Paris Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on Port State Control indicate that the MLC Convention is being well-enforced, with 113 ship detentions relating to MLC deficiencies recorded since MLC 2006 entered into force on 20 August, 2013. “Overall, it seems that progress is being made and that MLC can deliver on its promises.
Seacurus Debates MLC Abandonment Insurance Issues
During a recent tour of northeast England, Lord Livingston, the UK’s Minister for Trade and Investment, visited the Gateshead headquarters of Seacurus which, in April 2013, launched CrewSEACURE, the first ever insurance policy designed exclusively to protect the rights of seafarers when ships are abandoned at sea. Seacurus has a well-established relationship with UK Trade & Investment (UKTI), having received expert advice and support from its Passport to Export scheme which helped the company to develop 99 percent of its insurance premium income from overseas markets.
Seacurus: Seafarers Should be Protected Against Risk of Unpaid Wages
Specialist marine insurance intermediary Seacurus says that reported doubts about the insurance industry’s ability to insure the liability for unpaid wages of abandoned seafarers under the Maritime Labor Convention 2006 are inaccurate and ill-founded. It is already an agreed principle under MLC 2006, which came into force in August 2013, that liability for the unpaid wages of seafarers currently falls to the recruitment and placement services which help seafarers find employment at sea.
Seacurus Welcomes New Lloyd’s Seafarer Abandonment Risk Code
Specialist marine insurance intermediary Seacurus has welcomed the decision of Lloyd’s to amend its risk codes to include a new class of insurance covering seafarer abandonment (SA). Lloyd’s provides guidance to underwriters on the classification of business into various categories using a risk coding scheme which provides a common basis for the classification and description of risk. Thomas Brown, managing director of UK-based Seacurus, says, “This new class of insurance is very welcome and very timely. Seafarer Abandonment (SA) is classed as financial guarantee insurance, meaning that any Lloyd’s syndicate wanting to write it will need approval from the Lloyd’s performance directorate to do so.
Seacurus Provides Industry First
Specialist marine insurance intermediary Seacurus launched a new insurance policy to indemnify seafarers in the event of the financial default of their employers which, for the first time, offers recompense in respect of unpaid crew wages. The policy will enable all employers of seafarers to meet their regulatory obligations under the Maritime Labor Convention 2006 (MLC), which enters force on August 20, 2013. The new policy, CrewSeacure, provides up to $10 million of cover in the event of an employer’s financial default.
This Day in Coast Guard History – August 6
1878- The last true sailing cutter built for the Revenue Service, Chase (Salmon P. Chase) was completed on 6 August 1878 at the shipyard of Thomas Brown of Philadephia. Barque-rigged, Chase displaced 142 tons and served as a cadet "practice vessel" for nearly 30 years before being decommissioned and transferred to the U.S. Public Health Service. 1918-The first American lightship to be sunk by enemy action, Lightship No. 71, was lost on her Diamond Shoals station. LS 71 had reported by radio the presence of a German submarine which had sunk a passing freighter. That message was intercepted by the submarine U-104, which then located the lightship and, after giving the crew opportunity to abandon ship in the boats, sank LS 71 by surface gunfire.
