Seafarers

Wages are the most frequent crew claim. Under Turkish law they are the strongest claim a creditor can have against a ship.

On any vessel: the lien and the arrest

Wages and other sums due to seafarers for their service on board — including repatriation costs and social insurance contributions payable for them — are maritime claims (TCC art. 1352) and carry a maritime lien over the vessel (TCC art. 1320(1)(a)). The lien:

• follows the vessel into any hands (TCC art. 1321(5));
• secures principal, interest and costs (TCC art. 1322);
• ranks ahead of every mortgage and charge on the vessel (TCC art. 1323);
• lapses one year after the seafarer leaves the vessel unless she has been arrested within that year and is then sold in enforcement (TCC art. 1326).

The crew can therefore arrest the vessel in the Turkish port where she lies (TCC art. 1355), and — unlike every other claimant — without lodging the 10,000 SDR security (TCC art. 1363(3)). The application is made by the seafarers themselves, through a union or a welfare body acting for them, or by a manning agent, P&I club or other party that has paid the crew and taken an assignment of the claims — the lien passes with the claim (TCC art. 1325).

On a Turkish-flagged vessel: the Maritime Labour Law

• Pay. Wages, bonuses and premiums must be paid in full at the times and places fixed in the employment agreement, and the pay period may not exceed one month (Law No. 854 art. 29). When the agreement ends or is terminated, the employer must pay the wages immediately and in full (Law No. 854 art. 29).
• Overtime. Paid at not less than 25 per cent above the hourly rate (Law No. 854 art. 28).
• Wage book. Every vessel keeps a notarised wage book in which each payment is recorded and receipted; payment claims not supported by the book are not valid (Law No. 854 art. 31).
• Unpaid wages. A seafarer whose wages are not paid as the law or the agreement requires may terminate the agreement without notice (Law No. 854 art. 14) and, on such a termination, is owed severance pay of thirty days' wages for each full year of service (Law No. 854 art. 20).

An abandoned crew is a crew whose employer has stopped paying, provisioning or repatriating them. Turkish law does not use the word, but it gives the crew the tools.

Repatriation

On a Turkish-flagged vessel the employer must return a seafarer whose agreement is terminated abroad to the vessel's port of registry and pay the travel, subsistence and other necessary costs; a foreign seafarer is returned to the port of his or her place of residence (Law No. 854 arts 21, 22). Termination in a Turkish port carries the same duty (Law No. 854 art. 23).

• If the employer fails: the seafarer is owed the costs of getting home plus compensation of fifteen days' wages (Law No. 854 art. 24).
• Deadline for the seafarer: the request to be repatriated must be made within a week of the termination (Law No. 854 art. 25).
• Foreign flag: the duty to repatriate comes from the agreement and the flag state's law, but the cost of repatriation is part of the seafarer's maritime claim and lien in Türkiye (TCC arts 1320(1)(a), 1352).

Ending the agreement

Under the Maritime Labour Law either side may terminate without notice if the vessel is taken out of service for more than thirty days, and the agreement ends of itself if the vessel is lost, abandoned, declared a prize or leaves the Turkish flag (Law No. 854 art. 14).

The wage claim survives all of these; the lien survives them for one year.TCC art. 1326

Securing food, fuel and the crew's position

Once the vessel is under arrest for the crew's claims, the enforcement office takes the measures needed for her management, maintenance and protection (TCC art. 1368), and the arrest extends to the income the operator earns from her (TCC art. 1368). Provisions and repatriation advanced by a union, a P&I club or an agent for the crew are themselves claims connected with the vessel's operation and are pursued alongside the wages.

Loss of life and personal injury connected with the operation of the vessel, on land or at sea, are maritime claims (TCC art. 1352) and carry a maritime lien (TCC art. 1320(1)(b)) that ranks ahead of the mortgage (TCC art. 1323).

• Security. The injured seafarer, or the family, can secure the claim by arresting the vessel in a Turkish port — here the ordinary 10,000 SDR security applies, since the exemption is for wage claims only (TCC art. 1363(3)).
• Merits. The claim is then pursued against the owner, operator or employer under the law that governs the employment.
• Turkish flag. The seafarer is within the Turkish social security system, and disputes under the employment agreement go before the labour court; absent another provision in the agreement, the competent court is the labour court at the vessel's port of registry (Law No. 854 art. 46).