New MLC Rules for Yacht Crew: What Changed in December 2024 (and What’s Coming)

Last updated: August 2026

“The rules never really change for us.”

It’s a fair assumption on a yacht. The MLC can feel like something that happens to commercial ships in far-away ports, not to the deckhand wondering why the wifi’s been cut off again or why the agency wanted a “placement fee.”

But the rules did change — quietly, at the end of 2024 — and more is coming in 2027. Some of it is directly useful to know, because it affects things crew deal with every season: internet on board, what a recruiter has to tell you, and what happens if you’re left unpaid and stuck. This is the plain-English version of what’s actually in force, what isn’t yet, and what it means for you.

First, what the MLC is (in one paragraph)

The Maritime Labour Convention, 2006 — the “seafarers’ bill of rights” — sets the minimum standards for working and living at sea: pay, hours, leave, repatriation, welfare. It applies to most yachts operating internationally, through whichever flag your vessel flies. The Convention gets updated periodically, and those updates (“amendments”) become the new floor once they come into force. Two rounds matter right now.

What changed in December 2024

These amendments were agreed in 2022 and came into force on 23 December 2024. They’re the current rules. The ones most relevant to yacht crew:

Internet and connectivity. Shipowners are now expected to provide social connectivity on board — including reasonable access to internet — so far as is reasonably practicable, and any charges for it must be reasonable. It isn’t a blanket “free wifi everywhere” guarantee, and it depends on what’s practical at sea. But “there’s no internet because we don’t provide it” is no longer the clean answer it used to be. It’s a welfare standard now, not a favour.

Recruiters have to tell you your protection rights. If you’re placed through a recruitment or placement agency, you must now be told — before or during your engagement — about your right to be compensated for any financial loss caused by the agency failing to meet its obligations. In practice, that means the “just sign and get on board” approach has a new duty sitting behind it. It’s worth knowing this exists before you accept a job through an agency.

Stronger protection if you’re abandoned. The rules around abandonment and repatriation were tightened. States are now expected to facilitate the prompt repatriation of abandoned seafarers, and crew brought in to replace abandoned crew are entitled to the same protections. If you’ve ever seen a situation where nobody wanted to take responsibility for getting stranded crew home, this is aimed squarely at it.

Food, water and kit. Food and drinking water must be provided free of charge and be adequate in quantity and quality, and personal protective equipment now has to actually fit — properly sized PPE, not “one size and hope.” Small on paper, real on a boat.

What’s coming in 2027 (adopted, not yet in force)

A further set of amendments was adopted on 6 June 2025 and is expected to come into force on 23 December 2027. These are agreed but not yet binding — worth knowing about, not yet enforceable. The headline changes:

• Seafarers recognised as key workers, to protect safe movement for joining ships, crew changes, shore leave and repatriation — a direct lesson from the pandemic crew-change crisis.
• Explicit protections against violence and harassment on board — including sexual harassment, bullying and sexual assault — with duties on flag states and shipowners to prevent and address it, and safer ways to report it.
• Visa-free shore leave, with port authorities required to give written reasons for any refusal.
• Repatriation without discrimination, irrespective of the ship’s flag, with the shipowner’s minimum cost coverage clarified.
• Fairer treatment of seafarers detained in connection with alleged crimes.

One related change is already live: since the start of 2026, harassment-prevention competence has been built into seafarers’ basic safety training under the STCW framework — so the direction of travel is clear even before the MLC changes bite in 2027.

The catch: it depends on your flag

Here’s the honest part. The MLC is implemented by each flag state, and how quickly and thoroughly an amendment is turned into enforceable rules — and inspected — varies from flag to flag. A well-run register with an active inspection regime is a very different prospect from a flag of convenience.

So “the rules changed” and “the rules are enforced on your boat” aren’t automatically the same thing. Which version applies to you, and how seriously it’s taken, comes back to the flag your vessel flies — which is exactly why it’s worth knowing what your flag is, and what it means, before you commit.

What this actually means for you

You don’t need to memorise regulation numbers. The practical takeaways are simpler:

• If your yacht cuts connectivity entirely, that’s now bumping against a welfare standard — not necessarily solved overnight, but no longer just “how it is.”
• If you’re taking a job through an agency, you have a right to know how you’re protected if they don’t deliver. Ask.
• If pay stops and you’re stranded, the framework for getting you home has been strengthened — and knowing it exists changes how confidently you can ask the first question.
• If harassment or bullying is part of why a boat feels impossible, the protections around it are being written into the rules, and the reporting side already has more behind it than it used to.

Knowing the floor exists is what lets you ask a fair question calmly, instead of assuming nothing can be done.

Where CrewRights fits

We’re not here to turn you into a maritime lawyer. We’re here to help you understand, in plain English, what your documents and your flag actually give you — so you can spot when something’s off and take a calm, documented next step.

Our free Flag State Reference Card is a quick way to see what your vessel’s flag means for your pay and rights, and our SEA Red Flags Guide helps you check your own contract against the standards above. If your situation has gone past a guide — you’re owed money, or stuck, or being pushed — that’s the point where a fixed-fee review turns your own documents into a clear position, before anything needs a lawyer.

Related reading:

Before you accept a yacht job through a recruiter

Seafarer abandonment: what to do if you’re owed wages and stuck aboard

Repatriation rights: who pays to get you home, and when

Our full guide to yacht crew rights

CrewRights provides fixed-fee information and document-preparation support for yacht and commercial crew. This guide is general information, not legal advice, and does not create an attorney–client relationship.