Never leave the vessel without authorization

At best, you will have to buy tickets home by yourself, at worst, a record, blocking your further sea career, may appear in your seaman's book. 

What can a seafarer, who left the ship without authorization prior to the expiration of the contract, expect? Some people consider the answer is obvious. Nevertheless, a seafarer contacted the Kaliningrad Territorial Organization of the Seafarers' Union of Russia with a complaint: in his opinion, the company underpaid him $500, which he found out after the signing off from the vessel. According to the seafarer, he worked out the contract, filed a report on dismissal, and went home without receiving his payroll slip. 

KTO SUR began to investigate the case. It had been found that the seafarer was recruited for work on a foreign vessel operating under a collective agreement, through a Kaliningrad crewing agency. Its employees provided KTO SUR with all the documents on the current situation. The Chair of the Kaliningrad Territorial Organization of the Seafarers’ Union of Russia Lyudmila Izmalkova told that, indeed, the seafarer's individual contract expired at the end of July, and the seafarer filed a relevant report in advance, expecting to be signed-off from the vessel on the expiry of his contract. When the vessel called at one of the Russian ports in mid-July, the seafarer left the vessel without telling anyone and disappeared in an unknown direction. He even didn't take his personal belongings and documents. Although, the following morning, he returned and asked for his belongings, and, having received them, he went home without waiting for his replacement. 

So why did the seafarer receive $500 less? Because any contract, as well as a separate clause in the collective agreement, specifies cases in which  a crew member can sign off from the vessel prior to the contract's expiry at the expense of the shipowner. If a specific case is not specified in the contract, then the leaving seafarer pays for the arrival of his replacement. And the withheld amount of $500 is far from the limit, because the expenses of delivering a seaman to the port can be much more.

It's a different matter if the withheld amount is less than the cost of a crew change. The shipowner is unlikely to go to court to get back $2,000-3,000, but he will certainly put a “tick” with the note “do not hire” against the name of such a seafarer.In case of a Russian flagged vessel, the situation can be even worse. The fact is that in addition to the shipowner’s unwillingness to deal with the person in the future, a negative record may appear in the seaman’s book, and few Russian companies will risk hiring a seafarer with such a record. 

Remember, that if you leave the vessel without authorization, you will face repercussions. In case you have an objective reason to sign-off early, it is better and more properly to agree the replacement with your employer – by yourself or with the assistance of a trade union.

Pictured: author Dlyaver Alchik for the SUR competition “I'm/We are key workers”