34AFinancial security to meet abandonment liability

34A Financial security to meet abandonment liability

(1) A master or owner of a vessel must not take the vessel to sea if the vessel does not have on board documentary evidence of financial security to meet liability arising from abandonment of any seafarer of the vessel.

(2) The documentary evidence of financial security must include the following information:

(a) the name of the vessel;

(b) the home port of the vessel;

(c) the call sign of the vessel;

(d) the IMO number of the vessel;

(e) the name and address of the provider or providers of the financial security;

(f) the contact details of the person responsible for receiving requests and arranging seafarer assistance;

(g) the name of the owner of the vessel;

(h) the period of validity of the financial security;

(i) an attestation by the provider or providers of the financial security that the security meets the requirements of MLC standard A2.5.2.

(3) For subsection (1), abandonment is taken to have occurred if the owner of the vessel has not:

(a) complied with any repatriation requirement mentioned in sections 31 to 33; or

(b) paid wages or other payments due to the seafarer for 2 months; or

(c) provided the necessary maintenance and support mentioned in paragraph 2(b) of MLC standard A2.5.2.

Note Paragraph 5 of MLC standard A2.5.2 provides that for paragraph 2(b) necessary maintenance and support includes adequate food, accommodation, drinking water supplies, essential fuel for survival on board the ship and necessary medical care.

(4) The owner must ensure that documentary evidence of financial security is placed on board the vessel in a location where it is available for perusal, without the need for a seafarer to ask to access it.

(5) An offence against subsection (1) or (4) is a strict liability offence.

(6) A person is liable to a civil penalty if the person contravenes subsection (1) or (4).