BY HERBERT VEGO
AS this corner has repeatedly espoused, disabled seamen on overseas vessels are entitled to disability benefits. More often than not, however, they have to demand for the right compensation. Otherwise, once they are rendered unfit to board another ship, they would be living the rest of their lives in penury.
Overseas Filipino seamen circling the globe – now numbering 230,000 – are protected by a law mandating the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) to require all maritime manning agencies to utilize the POEA-drafted “standard employment contract.”
Among its provisions, the standard contract requires the principal and/or the agency to award a minimum amount for “total and permanent disability” to its seafarers who become “unfit to work” due to sickness or accident during the term of employment, or to beneficiaries of those who die.
For total and permanent disability, the seafarer is entitled to receive US $60,000.
For death, the widow or closest living relative is entitled to receive $50,000 Moreover, a maximum of four of their minor children are also eligible to claim an additional $7,000 each for a total of $78,000, plus $1,000 for burial assistance.
Failure of the shipping company to settle the cited claims is always ground for the disabled seaman or his relatives to file a claim before the National Labor Relations Commission (NLRC).
The better news is that Filipino claimants may apply for much bigger benefits by filing a case before a maritime court of the country where the employer’s ship is registered. This is only feasible, however, in such countries as Panama, the United States, Greece, Japan and Norway.
These are the countries with lawyers affiliated with the Free Legal Assistance for Seafarers (FLAS), which is represented in the Philippines by Atty. Pete Linsangan.
The latest triumph attributed to FLAS was the payment of US $200,000 delivered by a Greek shipping company to an Ilongga widow whose husband died in an accident on board a Greek ship.
A pending case in Panama involves a maintenance man of the Panamanian vessel M/V Ocean Dream who was repatriated to his home province (Ilocos Sur) due to a work-related injury.
“He was willing to receive the POEA-standard permanent disability award amounting to $60,000,” Atty. Linsangan recalled, “but the shipping agency haggled for a much lower amount.”
No deal. Linsangan lost no time contacting the FLAS-affiliated Panamanian lawyers, who filed a case against the owners of M/V Ocean Dream before the Panama Maritime Court for non-payment of the Filipino seaman’s disability claim.
On May 10, 2014, to cut the long story short, the Panamanian maritime police arrested the said vessel while it was entering the Panama Canal.
It was only upon posting a bond in the amount of US $850,000 that the ship owners were allowed to secure the release of their impounded vessel.
It assured the Ilocano seafarer (name withheld upon request) that his employers would abide by whatever decision the Panama court would render vis-à-vis his claim, otherwise they could not claim back their bond.
Incidentally, for updates on the Free Legal Assistance for Seafarers (FLAS) cases, please listen to the radio program “Tribuna sang Banwa”on Aksyon Radyo-Iloilo every Sunday, 12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. It is hosted by Neri Camiña, who may be contacted through cellular phone number 09173288742./PN
