14.—(1) No person shall cause or permit any person without a seafarer’s employment agreement to be employed as a seafarer on a ship.
(2) Every shipowner shall —
(a)
ensure that the seafarer’s employment agreement is read over and explained to the seafarer;
(b)
ascertain that the seafarer understands the agreement;
(c)
ensure that the seafarer has been given an opportunity to examine and seek advice on the agreement before he signs it; and
(d)
ensure that the agreement is signed by both the seafarer and by the shipowner or on behalf of the shipowner.
(3) The master or shipowner shall cause to be supplied to the seafarer a signed original of the seafarer’s employment agreement under which the seafarer is employed.
(4) If a seafarer’s employment agreement is not in English, a copy of the standard form of the seafarer’s employment agreement shall be available in English on board ship.
(5) Where a collective agreement forms all or part of a seafarer’s employment agreement, a copy of that collective agreement shall be available on board ship and, where that collective agreement is not in English, the portions of that collective agreement that are subject to an inspection in port as specified in the Second Schedule shall also be available in English.
(6) The Authority may prescribe the form of and the matters to be included in the seafarer’s employment agreement and the particulars to be entered into it.
(7) Any term of a seafarer’s employment agreement that imposes a condition of service which is less favourable to a seafarer than any of the terms contained in this Act shall be unenforceable by the shipowner to the extent that it is so less favourable.
(8) Any term in an employment agreement providing for the seafarer to forego any part of the minimum annual leave prescribed under section 22 shall be unenforceable in so far as it purports to deprive the seafarer of that right or to remove or reduce the liability of the shipowner to grant the minimum annual leave prescribed under this Part except under such circumstances as may be prescribed by the Authority.
(9) Either party to a seafarer’s employment agreement may at any time give to the other party notice of his intention to terminate the agreement.
(10) The length of such notice shall be the same for both the shipowner and the seafarer and shall be in accordance with the seafarer’s employment agreement, provided that such notice shall, except in circumstances prescribed under subsection (13)(c), not be less than 7 days.
(11) Such notice shall be written and may be given at any time, and the day on which the notice is given shall be included in the period of the notice.
(12) Either party to the seafarer’s employment agreement may, without waiting for the expiry of the notice referred to in subsection (10), terminate the agreement by paying to the other party a sum equal to the amount of salary at the gross rate of pay which would have accrued to the seafarer during the period of the notice.
(13) The Authority may, with the approval of the Minister, make regulations for all matters relating to the engagement and discharge of seafarers, including the following matters:
(a)
the categories of seafarer’s employment agreements;
(b)
discharge books and other records of employment;
(c)
circumstances under which a notice period shorter than the minimum notice period of 7 days may be permitted.
(14) Any person who employs a seafarer or enters into a seafarer’s employment agreement with a seafarer in contravention of this section shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding $5,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 6 months or to both and, in the case of a second or subsequent conviction, to a fine not exceeding $10,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 12 months or to both.