The Seafarers' Wages Bill received Royal Assent on 23 March 2023, becoming the Seafarers' Wages Act 2023 (SWA 2023).

Since the passage of the National Minimum Wage (Offshore Employment) (Amendment) Order 2020 (see Legal update, National Minimum Wage (Offshore Employment) (Amendment) Order 2020 to narrow exclusion of offshore workers from NMW), the National Minimum Wage (NMW) applies to all seafarers on vessels on domestic UK routes. It applies whether or not the vessels were UK-registered and even if the seafarers are not ordinarily resident in the UK, but not to seafarers working on international routes unless their ship is registered in the UK and they are ordinarily resident in the UK.

The SWA 2023, enacted in response to the mass redundancies by P&O Ferries in March 2022 (see Legal update, Government writes to P&O requesting information on redundancies), provides that seafarers working on ships that use UK ports at least 120 times a year are paid a rate at least equivalent to the UK NMW for their work in UK waters. This applies irrespective of the ship's flag or the seafarers' nationality. The effect of the SWA 2023 is that harbour authorities have the power to request that ship operators provide a declaration that their seafarers are paid a rate at least equivalent to the NMW for their work in the UK or its territorial waters. Harbour authorities will be able to charge operators who fail to provide a declaration and can refuse access to the harbour in a case of non-compliance. The Secretary of State for Transport may appoint investigators from the Maritime and Coastguard Agency to verify that operators are complying.

Amendments to the Bill tabled in the House of Lords to extend the scope to include roster patterns, fair pay and legal protection for seafarers were defeated. The only amendment made to the Bill as presented to the House of Commons was to remove the original clause 3(4)(a) which gave the Secretary of State power to make regulations restricting the circumstances in which a harbour authority may exercise its power to request an NMW-equivalent declaration. Following discussion at Grand Committee, the provision was removed so as not to dilute the effect of the legislation.

Source: UK Parliament: Seafarers' Wages Act 2023.

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