Last updated: August 2026
“That’s just yachting.”
It’s the line that ends a lot of conversations about pay, leave, rest hours and being sent home. And sometimes the answer really is “that’s the industry.” But a surprising amount of what crew are told is “just how it works” is actually covered by a set of rules that apply to most yachts operating internationally — the Maritime Labour Convention, 2006.
This guide is the plain-English map. It won’t turn you into a lawyer, and it isn’t legal advice. What it does is lay out, in one place, what you’re generally entitled to — on pay, leave, rest, your contract, getting home, and being let go — and point you to a fuller guide on each. Think of it as the thing to read once, calmly, so you know which questions are fair to ask before you ever need to.
How to use this guide
Each section below covers one area, in short. Where you want the detail, follow the link to the full guide. And because so much of this depends on your specific contract and flag state, the honest theme running through all of it is the same: the answers live in your own documents — so the most useful habit is knowing what those documents should say before a problem starts.
On this page:
What MLC 2006 is (and why it applies on a yacht)
Your contract — the SEA
Pay
Leave and holiday pay
Hours of work and rest
Getting home — repatriation
Abandonment — owed wages and stuck aboard
Dismissal, notice and being pushed out
Your flag state
Keeping records
Raising an issue with your captain
When it’s past a checklist
FAQ
What MLC 2006 is (and why it applies on a yacht)
The Maritime Labour Convention, 2006 — usually just “the MLC” — is often called the seafarers’ bill of rights. It sets minimum standards for the working and living conditions of people who work at sea: pay, hours, leave, repatriation, medical care, accommodation and more.
A common misconception on yachts is that it’s a commercial-shipping thing that doesn’t reach the superyacht world. In practice, most yachts above 500 GT operating internationally fall under it, and many flag states apply it more widely. If your yacht flies a flag that has ratified the MLC — Cayman, Marshall Islands, Malta, the UK Red Ensign group and most major yachting flags have — then its standards form the floor beneath your contract.
“Floor” is the important word. The MLC sets a minimum. Your SEA and your flag state can give you more, never less. That’s why the rest of this guide keeps sending you back to your own paperwork: the Convention tells you the baseline, your documents tell you what you actually have.
Full guide: New MLC rules for yacht crew — what changed, and what it means. Free tool: the Flag State Reference Card.
Your contract — the SEA
Your Seafarer Employment Agreement (SEA) is the single most important document you own. It’s where your real protections live — or don’t. Most disputes that end badly were decided at the point of signing, before anyone stepped aboard.
A few clauses decide most disputes: the governing law (whose rules apply if things go wrong), the notice period, how and when you’re paid, leave, and repatriation. A verbal “don’t worry, you’ll be looked after” is worth nothing next to what’s written.
Most crew sign under time pressure — at the dock the day before joining, or over WhatsApp the night before a flight. Reading it slowly, and knowing which phrases (“at the captain’s discretion,” “as is industry standard,” “all disputes resolved internally”) quietly work against you, is the cheapest protection there is.
Full guides: what to check in a SEA before signing, and before you accept a job through a recruiter. Free tool: the SEA Red Flags Guide.
Pay
Under the MLC, wages must be paid at no greater than monthly intervals (Standard A2.2), in full, in line with your agreement. Persistent late pay isn’t just annoying — it’s a compliance issue under your flag state’s rules.
Most “unpaid wage” situations start as something smaller: a payment that’s late, a currency conversion that looks like a shortfall, a deduction nobody explained. The first move is almost never confrontation — it’s confirming what you’re actually owed against your contract and your payslips, calmly and in writing.
The gap between crew who get paid and crew who don’t is usually documentation. The ones who keep a clean record and raise the issue as a clarification, not an accusation, tend to resolve it long before it needs anyone else involved.
Full guides: what to do if your salary is late, and how to calculate unpaid yacht wages. Free tool: The First 14 Days After Missing Pay.
Leave and holiday pay
Of all the entitlements crew lose money on, leave is the most common — and the most often unrecovered. The MLC floor is 2.5 calendar days of paid annual leave per month of employment (Standard A2.4). Your flag state can require more; none can require less.
Leave is counted in calendar days, not working days, and it accrues from your first day — not after probation. The friction usually appears at the end of a contract, when untaken leave should be paid out and someone decides, late in the day, that “it was already in your day rate.”
Sometimes that’s true. Often it isn’t. The test is whether anyone can show you the specific clause in your signed SEA and a transparent calculation. Day-rate crew are covered too — a common myth is that they’re outside MLC leave provisions, and they aren’t.
Full guide: what counts as holiday pay for yacht crew.
Hours of work and rest
atigue is one of the least-enforced parts of the MLC on yachts, and one of the most real. The Convention sets minimum rest: at least 10 hours in any 24-hour period, and at least 77 hours in any 7-day period (Standard A2.3).
These aren’t optional, and “it’s charter season” isn’t an exception written into the rules. What often is missing is the record — the hours-of-rest log that proves what actually happened. If fatigue ever becomes a safety or dispute issue, that record is what you’ll wish you’d kept.
The practical point isn’t to wave the rulebook at your captain mid-season. It’s to know the floor exists, and to keep your own note of the hours, quietly, so the facts are yours if you ever need them.
Full guide: yacht crew rest hours — what the MLC actually requires (coming soon).
Getting home — repatriation
When your employment ends abroad, getting you home is generally the shipowner’s obligation and cost — not a favour, and not something to be deducted from your final wages. This sits under MLC Regulation 2.5.
You’re generally entitled to repatriation at no cost to yourself when your SEA expires while you’re away, when the yacht ends your contract, when you can no longer carry out your duties, or when the yacht is sold or changes flag. There’s also a maximum period of continuous service — generally framed as less than 11 months aboard — after which the entitlement applies regardless of how the contract ends.
The place this goes wrong is the phrase “book your own flight and claim it back.” You can, calmly and in writing, ask who is arranging your repatriation and to where. Naming the obligation is often enough to move it back where it belongs.
Full guide: repatriation rights — who pays to get you home, and when.
Abandonment — owed wages and stuck aboard
Abandonment is the extreme end of a pay dispute, and it has a legal definition, not just a feeling. Under the MLC, you can be deemed abandoned when the shipowner fails to cover repatriation, leaves you without necessary maintenance and support, or otherwise cuts ties — including failing to pay contractual wages for at least two months.
Since the 2014 amendments (in force from 2017), MLC-covered vessels must carry financial security — usually a certificate displayed on board — designed to cover unpaid wages, repatriation and essential needs if crew are abandoned. A certificate existing is not the same as the cover being real, so it’s worth knowing it’s there and photographing it.
If you’re heading toward this, the emergency layer is free and fast: an ITF inspector, your flag and port state, and a seafarers’ welfare helpline. Use them first. The documentation comes right after.
Full guide: seafarer abandonment — what to do if you’re owed wages and stuck aboard.
Dismissal, notice and being pushed out
Being let go from a yacht comes in a few forms, and the label matters. Termination with notice, summary dismissal “for cause,” and being pressured to resign are three different things with three different sets of rights attached.
The MLC sets a minimum notice period of not less than 7 days (Standard A2.1), and your SEA or flag state may set more. Summary dismissal needs genuine cause, not just a captain’s say-so. And being steered into “just resigning” can quietly cost you notice, a clean repatriation position, and your claim to what you’re already owed — which is exactly why it’s so common.
Whatever the exit looks like, the same protective habit applies: don’t sign anything you don’t understand in the moment, get the reason in writing, and keep the evidence of what actually happened.
Full guides: fired from a yacht — your rights and what to do this week, and were you pushed to resign?
Your flag state
Your yacht’s flag isn’t just a formality — it decides which country’s version of the MLC applies, who enforces it, and where you’d take a complaint. A well-regulated flag with a functioning maritime authority is a very different prospect from a flag of convenience that changed twice last year.
The major yachting flags — Cayman, Marshall Islands, Malta and the UK Red Ensign group — have all ratified the MLC, but their enforcement and documentation differ in practice. Knowing which one you’re under, and what it means for you, changes how confidently you can ask the first question.
You’re allowed to ask what flag a vessel flies before you commit. It’s a fair preview of how seriously your rights will be taken.
Full guide: flag of convenience — does your yacht’s flag change your rights? (coming soon). Free tool: the Flag State Reference Card.
Keeping records
Almost every section above is easier to resolve with your own paperwork, and much harder without it. Your SEA, discharge book, every payslip, your wage-account statements and any written communication about pay, leave or your departure — these are your evidence.
The rule of thumb: keep your own copies, on a personal cloud, off any boat account you’ll lose the day you leave the crew list. Never hand back the original of your discharge book. And when something is agreed verbally, a short follow-up message confirming it turns a memory into a record.
None of this is dramatic. It’s just the quiet habit that separates the crew who can prove their position from the crew who can only remember it.
Full guide: what documents should yacht crew keep? (coming soon). Free tool: the Documentation Vault.
Raising an issue with your captain
Most pay and leave problems are won or lost in how they’re first raised. The same facts asked as a clarification get a very different response than the same facts asked as a complaint.
The move that protects both your position and the working relationship is almost always the same: calm, specific, in writing, with dates and figures, framed as “help me understand this” rather than “you owe me.” It creates a record without creating a fight.
Confrontation rarely changes the outcome and often damages the relationship. A clear, professional message — built from your own documents — usually does more.
Full tools: the Before You Message the Captain guide and the Before You Speak Checklist.
When it’s past a checklist
Most of what’s on this page can be handled with a calm question and a clean paper trail. Some of it can’t. If a shortfall is real, a payment never lands, or you’re being pushed to sign something at an exit, the pre-legal layer is where structured documentation does the work — before anything escalates to lawyers, which is slower, costlier and adversarial.
That’s the layer CrewRights sits in. Start with the free guides and tools in our Resources — they cover most situations. If your situation genuinely needs more than a checklist, a fixed-fee review turns your own documents and figures into a clear, structured position: a SEA Contract Review (€199) for what your contract actually gives you, a Pay & Leave Review (€249) for wage and leave disputes, or a Communication Pack (€149) to turn it into a calm, evidenced message. We’re the layer that sits before lawyers, and alongside your union — not instead of either.
FAQ
Does the MLC apply to superyachts?
Most yachts above 500 GT operating internationally fall under it, and many flag states apply it more widely. If your flag has ratified the MLC, its standards form the floor beneath your contract.
How much paid leave am I entitled to?
The MLC floor is 2.5 calendar days per month of employment (Standard A2.4). Your flag state or SEA can give more, never less. Untaken leave is generally paid out at the end of a contract.
Who pays to get me home at the end of a job?
Generally the shipowner, under MLC Regulation 2.5 — not you, and not as a deduction from your final wages.
What are the rest-hour minimums?
At least 10 hours in any 24-hour period and at least 77 hours in any 7-day period (Standard A2.3). “Charter season” is not an exception in the rules.
How much notice am I owed?
The MLC minimum is not less than 7 days (Standard A2.1); your SEA or flag state may set more. Summary dismissal “for cause” needs genuine cause.
Do day-rate crew have the same rights?
On MLC-covered vessels, yes — including leave equivalents. A day rate that “includes leave” should say so transparently in your SEA, with a calculation you can follow.
What should I do first if my pay is short?
Confirm what you’re actually owed against your contract and payslips, then raise it calmly and in writing as a clarification. Keep the record.
In short
- The MLC sets minimum standards for most yachts operating internationally — a floor your SEA and flag state can raise but not lower.
- Your real protections live in your SEA; the most common mistakes happen at signing. Pay, leave, rest hours, repatriation and notice all have MLC baselines worth knowing.
- Your flag state decides whose rules apply and who enforces them.
- Your own documents are your evidence — keep copies off the boat.
- Most problems are solved calmly and in writing; the pre-legal layer is for when a checklist isn’t enough.
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.