Study On The Legal Protection Mechanism For The Right To Wages Of Crew In China

China is currently in a crucial period of achieving common prosperity and advancing from a maritime power to a maritime strong nation.In the context of a maritime power,the crew as the most important production factor in the shipping industry.The wages of seafarers are not only an important indicator of their professional dignity but also a key driver for the development of maritime talent.It also impacts the healthy development of China’s seafarer workforce.Since China’s accession to the 2006 Maritime Labour Convention,the legal protection of seafarer rights has significantly improved.However,the legal mechanisms for seafarer wages still face various challenges.For instance,the security of seafarer wages is threatened,wage arrears remain a serious issue,the effectiveness of wage adjustment mechanisms is limited,leading to significant fluctuations in seafarer wages in response to market conditions,and China’s seafarer wages are relatively low,affecting seafarers’ willingness to work on ships.Effective national regulation of the legal protection mechanisms for seafarer wage rights,while respecting market mechanisms,is crucial to promote the stability and healthy development of China’s seafarer workforce.In view of the above background,this paper intends to explore the relationship between the legal protection mechanism of seafarers’ wage rights and their willingness to work at sea.Starting from this perspective,the study aims to identify adverse factors affecting seafarers’ willingness to work at sea through the design of questionnaires.Simultaneously,by delving into the current status of seafarers’ wage distribution,adjustments,and negotiations,the paper conducts a detailed analysis of the existing legal protection of seafarers’ wage rights.The goal is to provide feasible pathways for enhancing the legal protection mechanism of seafarers’ wage rights.This research will employ empirical,normative,and comparative methods to systematically explore the legal protection mechanisms of seafarers’ wage rights.It aims to address existing issues such as fragmentation,dispersion,and operational inadequacies in the current legal protection system for seafarers’ wage rights.The research focuses on three aspects: firstly,the procedural safeguards for seafarer wage rights;secondly,the civil safeguards for the security of seafarer wage payment;and thirdly,the administrative safeguards for seafarer wage levels.The main body of the thesis is divided into six chapters:The first chapter clarifies the nature and scope of the right to wages of crew and considers the special characteristics of the rules of engagement on wages of crew.Defining the crew’s right to wages is the basis and prerequisite for studying the mechanism of legal protection of the crew’s right to wages,and this chapter highlights the differences between the crew’s right to wages and the general workers’ right to wages.The specificity of the crew’s right to wages is reflected in the types and forms of wages,including embarkation and disembarkation wages,as well as some special forms such as settling-in payments and wages accompanying the ship.The second chapter focuses on determining the scope of the research in this paper.By analysing the typical correlation between the guarantee of crew’s wage rights and crew’s willingness to embark,it is found that the collective bargaining of crew’s wages and the factors related to the wage level of crew have a significant impact on crew’s willingness to embark.Combined with a systematic review of the legislation on the crew’s wage rights,it is found that the current problems of legal protection of the crew’s wage rights are mainly concentrated in three aspects :Firstly,procedural safeguards for seafarers’ wage rights: The internationalization of seafarer employment further weakens seafarers’ bargaining power in wage determination.The absence of collective bargaining mechanisms leaves seafarers powerless when asked to accept wage reductions.Secondly,security safeguards for seafarers’ wage payments:This encompasses irregular wage payments,significant wage arrears,and the difficulty in balancing the interests of seafarers and shipowners.Thirdly,inadequate safeguards for the unique wage levels of seafarers: Considering the significance of the seafaring profession,it is essential to provide special tax protections for seafarers.The international nature of seafarer employment and the mobility of work locations highlight the need for special minimum wage guarantees for seafarers.The third chapter introduces the theoretical main line of the improvement of the legal protection mechanism of the crew’s right to wages.The theory of the legal protection mechanism of crew wages is divided into three levels.Firstly,crew wages at the level of individual contracts mainly rely on the market adjustment mechanism to determine wage composition and payment methods.Secondly,when the market failure leads to the individual contract can not determine the crew wages,the government through the policy and legal intervention on the crew wage market control.Finally,in order to improve the operational efficiency of China’s seafarers’ labour market,it is necessary to enhance the bargaining power of seafarers.At the national level,the complementary role of collective bargaining for crew wages should be emphasised,and the mechanism of collective bargaining should be improved through legal means to reduce the cost of negotiation and ensure fair distribution of wage income.The fourth chapter analyzes the enhancement of procedural safeguards for seafarer wage rights.The collective negotiation of seafarer wages in China faces challenges such as ineffective negotiations,limited bargaining power of seafarer industry wage negotiations,and a weak influence of tripartite negotiations in the maritime sector.By employing transaction cost theory from institutional economics,this chapter studies ways to reduce transaction costs and strengthen the effectiveness of collective wage negotiations.It draws insights from international practices,including those of the United States Seafarers’ Union,Philippine unions,and the International Transport Workers’ Federation(ITF),as well as the domestic experience of wage collective negotiations in Zhejiang Wenzhou.The chapter suggests that China should improve the collective negotiation mechanism for seafarer wages,emphasizing its supplementary role in legal protection of seafarer rights.It recommends overcoming the "formalization" dilemma in China’s seafarer wage collective negotiation system through legislative measures at the national level.This includes increasing the flexibility of the collective negotiation mechanism,expanding the scope of negotiation subjects and content,and enhancing the influence of China’s seafarer wage collective negotiation system.The fifth chapter examines the mechanisms for civil protection of crew members’ right to wages,including the determination of crew members’ right to claim wages,financial security for crew members’ wages and mechanisms for security in rem.The issue of unpaid wages for crew members remains the main problem facing the legal protection of crew members’ wages,and the difficulty of confirming the right to claim wages for crew members is the main obstacle to the recovery of wages by crew members through the judicial process.Legislation should emphasise the provision of a list of wages for crew members,the refinement of the legal application of the principle of equal pay for work of equal value,and the clarification of the reasons for the deduction of wages,as well as the legal consequences of inappropriate payment.In order to ensure the smooth realisation of the crew’s right to claim wages,the existing financial guarantee mechanism for wages is inadequate in terms of the manner and flexibility of the legal protection of the wages of crew members.By comparing the differences between different models of wage protection,it is recommended that a special social insurance-type wage advance fund for seafarers be established.Regarding property rights protection,seafarer wage priority rights are a highly disputed issue in judicial practice,particularly involving disputes about the definition of "seafarers," the scope of wages covered,and the transferability of seafarer wage priority rights.The chapter suggests that the primary goal of improving the seafarer wage priority rights system should be to encourage seafarer embarkation.Based on this,the chapter explores the scope and operational rules of seafarer wage priority rights.At the legislative level,it recommends expanding the subject scope of seafarer wage priority rights and confirming that inland river seafarers are entitled to seafarer wage priority rights.It also suggests expanding the content protected by seafarer wage priority rights to include compensation for wage damages.Finally,after judicial review,it proposes allowing third parties to acquire seafarer wage priority rights after clearing seafarer wages on behalf of seafarers.The sixth chapter examines administrative mechanisms for safeguarding seafarer wage levels.The protection of seafarer wage levels mainly includes minimum wage protection for seafarers and tax incentives.Currently,China lacks specific regulations for minimum wage protection for seafarers,and seafarers are subject to the minimum wage standards of the place of employment,which provide relatively low levels of protection.Due to the mobility and international nature of seafarer employment,Chinese seafarers face competition in the international labor market.To prevent Chinese seafarers from being subjected to low-wage competition that harms their legitimate interests,it is necessary to establish dedicated minimum wage standards for seafarers based on their actual circumstances.Moreover,considering the globalization of seafarer labor,it is essential to reform China’s tax incentive policies for seafarers by referencing advanced experiences from other countries and regions.However,through comparative research,it is evident that China’s seafarer wage taxation burden is relatively high,and the calculation of the tax year does not align with the periodic nature of seafarer labor.By conducting comparative research on China’s seafarer tax incentive policies,the chapter recommends addressing the issues of short-term and incomplete tax incentive policies for seafarers.It suggests clarifying China’s wage reduction and exemption policies for seafarers through legislation and improving seafarer-specific tax incentive policies by redefining the taxpayer’s resident status.This comprehensive approach aims to enhance the tax incentives for seafarer wages in China.This thesis’ s innovations mainly lie in three aspects: firstly,its cutting-edge and novel topic expands the research scope of labor law and explores the legal regulation and protection of industry wages,providing material for the theory of special laws in social law;secondly,it employs theories from public administration and institutional economics to study the legal protection of seafarer wage rights,offering pioneering insights compared to existing domestic research on wage laws;thirdly,it provides viewpoints and suggestions that can be referenced for China’s compliance with the 2006 Maritime Labour Convention and the enactment of seafarer wage legislation,contributing to the development of China’s legal framework for seafarer wage rights.