Crew Employment Rights & Contracts Explained: MLC 2006 for Superyacht Crew

If you’re new to yachting, or even if you’ve been at it a few seasons, the Maritime Labour Convention 2006, usually just called MLC 2006, is one of those things you’ve probably heard mentioned without anyone properly explaining what it actually means for you.

It’s often described as the seafarers’ bill of rights, and that’s a fair summary. It sets out the minimum standards every commercially registered yacht has to meet when it comes to how crew are employed, housed, paid and looked after onboard.

This guide breaks down what MLC 2006 actually guarantees you, in plain English, along with what to look out for in your contract before you sign anything.

Your Seafarer Employment Agreement

Every crew member working on an MLC compliant yacht is entitled to a Seafarer Employment Agreement, usually shortened to SEA. This is your formal contract, and it has to be in writing, in a language you understand, and signed before you join the vessel, not after.

A proper SEA should clearly set out your wages, your job title and duties, your notice period, your entitlement to leave, and your right to repatriation if things don’t work out. You’re entitled to read it in full and ask questions before you sign, and you should keep a copy for your own records once you’ve joined. If a captain or management company asks you to sign something on the day you arrive without giving you time to read it properly, that’s a fair thing to push back on.

If you want a fuller sense of what fair pay actually looks like for your role before you’re negotiating a contract, our Superyacht Crew Salary Guide 2026 is a good place to start.

Hours of Work and Rest

This is one of the most practical protections MLC 2006 offers, and it’s worth knowing the actual numbers rather than just the general idea.

In practice, this means your hours of work and rest should be recorded daily and signed off regularly, usually by you and the officer of the watch or the captain. If you’re regularly working well beyond these limits without proper compensatory rest afterwards, that’s worth raising, first onboard, and through the vessel’s flag state complaints procedure if it isn’t resolved.

Your Right to Repatriation

Repatriation is the right to be returned home, at the shipowner’s expense, in a defined set of circumstances. These include the end of your contract, illness or injury that means you can’t continue in your role, the yacht being sold or lost, or the yacht trading somewhere unsafe such as a war zone.

Under MLC 2006, you can’t be expected to serve more than 12 months onboard without becoming entitled to repatriation, even if your contract technically runs longer. You also can’t be asked to contribute towards the cost of your own repatriation, and shipowners are required to hold financial security specifically to cover this, so the obligation doesn’t just disappear if the owner or management company runs into financial trouble.

Contract Types You’ll Come Across on Superyachts

Not all yacht contracts look the same, and understanding the difference helps you know what you’re actually signing up for.

• Permanent contracts are the most common arrangement and mean joining the yacht full time across its seasons, typically a Mediterranean summer followed by a Caribbean or Indian Ocean winter.
• Rotational contracts split your time between defined periods working onboard and defined periods of leave, and have become increasingly common on larger private yachts.
• Seasonal contracts cover a single season, usually three to six months, and tend to be a good entry point for newer crew.
• Temporary contracts cover short term cover, often for a specific delivery, event, or crew member’s absence.

Whatever the contract type, the MLC protections around rest hours, repatriation and a written agreement apply the same way. If you’re weighing up which route suits you at this stage of your career, our guide on how to become superyacht crew covers how people typically move through these different types of roles.

What to Check Before You Sign

A few practical things are worth confirming before you commit to a role, beyond the headline salary figure.

• Confirm you’ll receive your SEA in writing before you join, not verbally promised and handed to you once you’re already onboard.
• Check who covers the cost of your flights to join and from the vessel at the end of your contract, and who pays for ENG1 medical renewals and STCW refresher courses if they fall due during your time onboard.
• Ask about the notice period on both sides, and if the role is on a charter yacht, get clarity on how gratuities are handled, since this varies significantly between vessels and can make a real difference to your total earnings.

None of this is about being difficult before you’ve even joined. A well run yacht and a professional management company will expect these questions and answer them clearly, and how those questions are received often tells you something useful about what working onboard will actually be like.

Where to Go for More Detail

This guide covers the essentials, but MLC compliance and candidate guidance can get more detailed depending on your specific situation and flag state.

Our MLC candidate guidance page goes into more depth on the formal requirements, and if you’re actively looking for your next role, register with our yacht crew recruitment team and we’ll make sure you’re matched with vessels and management companies that take these standards seriously.