Crew member Emilio Tellez has created a free rest hours calculator to help fellow crew members check their schedules and better understand the rules. Drawing on his own experience Emilio developed seafarerresthours.com to make the calculations easier and highlight potential problems. In the article below, he explains the rest hour requirements and the common situations that can catch crew members off guard.

By Emilio Tellez, cruise ship crew

We all sign the rest hours record. Most of us sign it fast, at the end of a long day, trusting that whoever made the schedule already did the math. Then one day an inspector asks a question, or you notice you have not slept properly in eleven days, and you start wondering if those numbers were ever right.

So here is what the rules actually ask for, and the five places where cruise ship crew fall out of compliance without noticing.

The four numbers to remember

Two rules cover this. 

STCW (Manila amendments, Section A-VIII/1) applies to anyone with watchkeeping or safety duties. 

MLC 2006 (Standard A2.3) applies to seafarers in general. When both apply, the stricter one wins.

1. 10 hours of rest in any 24 hour period.**

2. 77 hours of rest in any 7 day period.**

3. Rest can be split in no more than two periods, and one of them has to be at least 6 hours.**

4. The time between two rest periods cannot be more than 14 hours.**

Some flag states use the other system: maximum 14 hours of work in 24, and 72 hours of work in 7 days. The split and the 14 hour rule still apply.

Pay attention to "in any 24 hour period". It does not mean the calendar day. It means any 24 hours, moving. I think that word is behind more problems than anything else on this list.

Where it goes wrong on a cruise ship

1. The split shift and the 14 hour rule.** This is the big one in hotel and F&B. Breakfast, break, lunch, break, dinner. Three blocks of work means your rest is cut in three periods, and the rule allows two. Even if the total is 10 hours, that day does not comply. The same schedule usually breaks the 14 hour rule too. If you finish breakfast at 10:30 and your next rest starts after midnight, more than 14 hours passed between rest periods, no matter how much you slept in between.

2. Counting the day instead of the moving 24 hours.** A schedule can look fine on Monday and fine on Tuesday, and still fail in the 24 hours that cross from one day to the other. If you only check from midnight to midnight, you will never see it.

3. Drills, musters and turnaround days.** Drills have to be scheduled so they disturb rest as little as possible. When a drill cuts your rest anyway, and on turnaround day it usually does, you are owed compensatory rest as soon as possible. Real rest, not a note in a file.

4. The weekly total on back to back port days.** Every day can sit exactly at 10 hours of rest and look fine, while the week quietly goes under 77. Almost everybody checks the daily number and almost nobody checks the weekly one. On an itinerary with no sea days, the 77 hours is the one that catches you.

5. Signing a record you did not check.** That record is the legal document. It has to show the hours you really worked. It stays on board at least six months and the company keeps it for three years. If it says something different from what happened, you signed the problem. And if one day you need to point at fatigue after an incident, that paper is what people will read.

What you can do

There are exceptions. Flag states can allow them, and a collective agreement can allow 70 hours a week for short periods, or a split in three periods a couple of days a week. But an exception has to be written in your agreement. A schedule cannot just assume it. Read yours and learn which ones apply on your ship.

After that it is simple. Do the math yourself, on the moving 24 hours, before you sign. Say something early, while the schedule can still be fixed, not after a whole week already went under. And when a drill or a call out eats your rest, ask for the compensatory rest. It is owed to you.

I got tired of doing this count on paper every time my schedule changed, so I made a free calculator: 

seafarerresthours.com. 

You put your hours and it tells you if you are inside the STCW and MLC limits, and which rule fails if you are not. It works in the browser, no account, nothing saved, nothing to buy. I made it for crew, not for companies.

If it gets something wrong for your flag state or your agreement, tell me and I fix it.

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*This is general information from a crew member, not legal advice. The rules change by flag state and by agreement, so check yours.*