A Year In Review: Enhanced Protection Of Seafarers

By virtue of Act I of 2025 and Legal Notice 26 of 2025, significant amendments were introduced to the Merchant Shipping Act (MSA) Chapter 234 of the Laws of Malta and to the Merchant Shipping (Maritime Labour Convention) Rules S.L 234.51 (‘the Amendments’), reflecting Malta’s continued efforts to modernise its maritime legal framework and align it with evolving international standards. As these amendments reach their first anniversary, this three-part series reviews the principal reforms introduced.

As part of our-year-in-review of the Amendments, Part II of this series focuses on enhanced protections for seafarers and Malta’s alignment with recent developments under the Maritime Labour Convention, 2006.

Amendments to Merchant Shipping (Maritime Labour Convention Rules) – S.L.234.51

By virtue of Legal Notice 26 of 2025, amendments were introduced to revise the Merchant Shipping (Maritime Labour Convention) Rules, aligning domestic legislation with the 2022 amendments to the Maritime Labour Convention, 2006 (MLC 2006) adopted by the International Labour Organization (ILO) and which entered into force internationally on 23 December 2024.

These reforms seek to enhance the working and living conditions of seafarers while addressing critical shortcomings exposed during the pandemic.

The Key Amendments:

Seafarers must be clearly informed of their rights concerning the responsibilities of recruitment and placement services, including their entitlement to compensation for any financial loss resulting from the failure of such services. Shipowners and recruitment agencies are required to maintain insurance or an equivalent financial security mechanism to compensate seafarers in the event of such default.

Recognising the importance of quality of life at sea, the amendments introduce stricter obligations relating to onboard living conditions and social connectivity for seafarers:

• Ships must maintain a well-equipped catering department that provides nutritious meals in hygienic conditions.
• Ships are also required to provide ship-to-shore telephone access and internet services at reasonable rates, ensuring that seafarers can maintain communication with their families and support networks.

Health and safety protections have also been strengthened. Shipowners are now required to provide personal protective equipment in a range of sizes to accommodate all crew members, thereby reducing the risk of occupational accidents, injuries, and diseases onboard.

Shipowners are further obliged to adequately investigate, document and report seafarer deaths occurring onboard Maltese Ships to the competent authority, for onward reporting to the director general of the ILO and publication in a global register.

The financial safeguard relating to the right to wages, irrespective of the earning of freight, has been amended through the removal of the proviso. Previously, while seafarers’ wages were generally payable regardless of whether the vessel generated freight revenue, an exception applied where a seafarer failed to exert reasonable effort to save the ship in cases of wreck or total loss, which could bar a claim to wages. The removal of this proviso eliminates any such exception, thereby strengthening seafarers’ protection by preventing shipowners from withholding wages in these circumstances.

Act I of 2025 – Amendment to MSA in relation to MLC 2006 amendments

Parallel amendments to the Merchant Shipping Act have been introduced by virtue of Act I of 2025.

Among the amendments is the express clarification of the shipowner’s responsibility in relation to expenses arising upon the death of a seafarer. Whereas the shipowner had previously been liable solely for burial expenses, this obligation has now been extended to include the repatriation of deceased seafarers, thereby broadening the financial protections afforded in such circumstances.

Further strengthening the protection of seafarers’ wages, a new proviso has been introduced stipulating that wages shall continue to accrue during the judicial sale of a ship, up until the point of sale.

The Act further introduced the definition of “bareboat charterer” as “a person who leases or sub-leases a ship, by means of a contract for a stipulated period of time, during which period such person shall acquire full control and complete possession of the ship, including the right to appoint her master and crew for the duration of the charter but excluding the right to sell or mortgage the ship;“. In light of this definition, consequential amendments were made to Part IV and Part V relating to Masters and Seamen and Safety of Life at Sea respectively, to extend relevant obligations to bareboat charterers alongside the existing responsibilities of shipowners or masters towards seafarers.

Together, these legislative updates reinforce Malta’s commitment to safeguarding seafarers’ well-being and ensuring fair and safe working conditions at sea.

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.