Скачать или смотреть Resolving Maritime Wage Claims | BoatLaw, LLP

BoatLaw, LLP partner Nick Neidzwski outlines what fishermen are entitled to receive from their employer if they are not promptly paid for their work and how BoatLaw fights for its clients' maritime wage claims.

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Transcription:
We handle a variety of earned wage claims for workers in different parts of the maritime industry: on a fishing vessel, on a tanker ship, or in other maritime industries; such as commercial diving. When you work a hazardous job, a dangerous job, or any job in the maritime industry, you are entitled to get promptly paid. Unfortunately, for many maritime workers, they are not promptly paid, and they need to seek the assistance of counsel to make sure that they are fully paid for their work. Fishermen, for example, often get paid by what's known as a crew share. Which is a payment method based upon the amount of fish caught by a particular vessel that they are working aboard. A captain aboard a commercial fishing vessel typically has a crew share of 30 to 40%, and the rest is typically split between the crew members. The crew share, however, comes after certain expenses are deducted, such as fuel, food, and for other expenses taken to run the vessel during the fishing voyage. And there can be disputes over the fishing company's calculation of a fisherman's crew share. We will analyze how crew share was calculated. We will analyze the agreement, the contract that the fisherman has, to make sure that they were paid in full. Many cases involve a fisherman not having a written agreement, and this can be in violation of maritime law. For any fishing vessel over 20 gross tons that fishes in the United States, there generally needs to be a written agreement. And if there is not a written agreement, then the fisherman is entitled to either: the highest rate of wages at the port where he was was engaged, or the agreed upon rate of wages between the fishermen and the owner; whichever is higher. In a case where there is no written fishing agreement, there can be a lot of research that goes into assessing what the highest rate of wages at the port was. And that rate of wages could be a lot higher than what was actually agreed to between the fisherman and the owner. If a fisherman or another maritime worker is not paid in full, they can be entitled to recover state law damage penalties. And those state law damage penalties can include double wage penalties. So the fisherman can recover: A, what he's owed, B double the amount of wages that he is owed, and C attorney's fees on top of that amount. Hypothetically, if a fisherman is not paid $10,000 for which he is owed under his crew share; he can be entitled to recover that $10,000, plus double wage penalties, which would add another $20,000, equaling $30,000, plus attorney's fees for having to bring a case against the owner, to recover his wages.

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