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Letter of Demand — unpaid wages

A Letter of Demand is the formal written step that puts the owner, manager, and manning agent on notice that wages are owed and that legal remedies — including a direct claim against the MLC financial-security insurer and vessel arrest — will follow if payment is not received within 14 days. Send this before contacting the ITF inspector if you are still on board and want a paper trail; send it alongside the ITF if you are already ashore or have engaged the union. If wages have been unpaid for two months or more and the owner has gone silent, skip straight to the wages claim toolkit which covers parallel escalation through the insurer, flag state, and admiralty court.

Form (formal letter)

Letter of Demand — unpaid wages

To: <addressee>

Re: Letter of Demand for unpaid wages — vessel <vessel>

Dear Sirs,

Pursuant to Maritime Labour Convention 2006 Regulation 2.2 and Standard A2.2, the undersigned seafarer hereby formally demands payment of wages owed in the total amount of <total amount>.

The undersigned served aboard the above-named vessel as <rank> from <join date> to <discharge date>. Wages were last paid on <last paid date>. The following amounts remain outstanding:

<itemised breakdown of wages, overtime, allotments, leave pay>

Should payment in full not be received within fourteen (14) days of the date of this Letter, the undersigned will, without further notice, exercise the following remedies:

  1. Direct this wage claim to the financial-security insurer named on the DMLC Part II — <insurer name>, policy <policy number> — pursuant to MLC 2006 Standard A2.5.2, under which the insurer is directly and jointly liable for outstanding wages up to four months.
  2. Register this case on the IMO/ILO Joint Database of Abandoned Seafarers (www.ilo.org/dyn/seafarers) and report to the flag-state maritime administration under MLC 2006 Regulation 5.1.5.
  3. Lodge a formal complaint with the relevant manning-agency licensing authority (POEA/DMW, DG Shipping, or equivalent) under ILO Convention 181.
  4. Serve a Notice of Intent to Arrest the vessel pursuant to seafarers' preferred maritime liens for unpaid wages under ILO Convention 173 and the 1993 Geneva Convention on Maritime Liens and Mortgages, and pursue all available admiralty remedies in any port where the vessel calls.

The undersigned expressly reserves all rights and remedies under MLC 2006 Regulation 2.2 (wages), Standard A2.5.2 (financial security for wage claims and repatriation), ILO Convention 173 (Protection of Workers' Claims in Employer Insolvency, 1992), and the 1993 Geneva Convention on Maritime Liens and Mortgages, and under any other applicable national or international law.

This Letter of Demand is issued without prejudice to all other rights and remedies.

________________________

Yours faithfully,

Master

________________________

Date

________________________

Acknowledged / received without prejudice by ____________________ Date / Time ____________

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