See, this? This would be awesome.
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Are you working on a ship? What union or company pays for business class for all flying international? ABs and QMEDs flying business class on all international flights? Dream on
Yeah pretty sure I’m on a ship…and by ‘for all’ I mean ALL, OS to Master fly business class on international flights with Polar.
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Haha lol so in other words never or maybe the one time every five years the company goes to dry dock in Singapore.
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The company I sail with usually sail with the guy getting off gets the vacation day but the one joining still gets his regular pay.
Polar is a smart company they make it comfortable and entice people to the company with high wages for thirds. Although I’ve seen the wages and if I was a senior officer over there I’d be complaining about the wages. But I know people sit as thirds over there forever because it’s comfortable even if their peers in school are sailing as chiefs making about more.
One company I worked for before also tried to make it comfortable for me. Always had my TSA precheck entered on my ticket and always got me a window seat in the front of the plane. - they’d ask every crew member their preferences. I left because the wages were lower than elsewhere even and the new company I went with I unfortunately always got a middle seat or aisle seat
Well I’ve been twice this year so i guess thats out
Last I know of, the MEBA paid business class for any flights over four hours, coming and going.
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Ditto the details given by “aCaptain” exactly the same for the last 2 companies I worked for.
I am fortunate to have worked on limited tonnage vessels and gained the experience in boat/shiphandling and total responsibility as a one man show on the bridge before finally going deepdraft and becoming a hand puppet on the bridge in regards to shiphandling. That being said, GOM oil field outfits and even seismic companies located predominantly overseas are not only behind the times, they have no respect or marine crews/mariners, they are treated as boat trash and bus drivers, operating a floating beer can. Foreign outfits virtualIy refuse to hire Americans, in part because of the litigous reputation we have and in part due to the lack of a national socialized/ socialist medical coverage the other nations have. I was double ended, both marine crew and seismic survey experienced and still had not one offer years ago. Americans by and large are not prima donnas and are willing to work harder, longer and perform more so than most other first world mariners hands down. I ended my limited tonnage. Back to the topic at hand, it appears that the inland/ limited tonnage tug/ industrial and oil field vessel operators largely depend on local labor pool and get away with not paying for travel or half day wages while traveling, whereas deepdraft whether Jones Act or overseas pays travel, daily/ half daily wages and baggage fees. Yes we fly only economy but that is no surprise.
Portal to Portal Act: When an Employer Must Pay for Travel Time under the FLSA
October 22, 2023 by Drew Lunt
One of the most common questions for employment lawyers is, when is an employee entitled to payment for travel time? In other words, when does the time an employee spends traveling be classified as hours worked for purposes of wage payment and/or overtime calculations?
The Portal-to-Portal Act is an amendment to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) enacted more than 70 years ago. Its primary purpose is to simplify the legal definition of a “compensable workday.” In general, it spelled out employers’ responsibilities and added protections to ensure that employees are paid for all time they spend working. Accordingly, federal lawmakers tried to shed light on the treatment of travel time for purposes of wage payment and overtime requirements. Although there are still some questions about this topic, many have been answered.
Table Of Contents
- No, employees do not have to be compensated for their regular commute
- Trips between workplaces during the same workday
- Travel to another city on one-day assignments
- Overnight travel
- Conclusion
MY COMMENTS;
Employers have generally been required to pay employees wages during travel since 1947.
However, mariners are “exempt employees” under the Portal to Portal Act, and the Fair Labor Standards Act.
We need to lobby for the exemption to be removed and for mariners to receive the same protections under the law as other employees.
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If after 70 years no mariner organization has lobbied to change this rule I don’t think it will happen. Mariners are also don’t always get overtime pay, hence the"day rate". That isn’t going to change either.
Back when labor could swing an election maybe but now? No
Even American owned OSV companies, like TDW etc, doesn’t hire American mariners for their operations outside US waters. They also do not use US-flagged or built boats for their worldwide operation.
It is not only because of high costs of US mariners, nor “national socialized/ socialist medical coverage”.
In some cases it may be because the countries they operate in, or the flag state, demand that national crews are used, but in most cases that is not the reason.
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When operating outside the US and beyond the national crew necessity the US owned companies prefer to hire mariners from other countries precisely because it cuts their costs for health insurance and also the advantage of lower wages. Even when the wages are comparable they still save money due to lower health insurance costs. Those same costs are included in the tax of more advanced ‘socialist’ countries like all of the EU.
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