Maritime Law · 15.09.2026

Seafarer Wages in Vietnam: Liens, Repatriation and Abandonment

Unpaid seafarer wages in Vietnam create a first-ranking maritime lien and a right to arrest the ship. Repatriation, rest hours, and the MLC financial security route.

Lawyer UnilawReading time: 9 min

By Lawyer Nguyen Nhu Hai – UniLaw LLC

Crew wages are not an ordinary debt. Unpaid seafarer wages in Vietnam attach to the ship herself, they outrank almost every other claim against her, and they carry the right to have her arrested. Owners, managers and manning agents who treat a wage dispute as a payroll problem usually discover this at the worst moment. This page follows the chain from the employment agreement through to arrest.

Why seafarer wages in Vietnam reach the ship itself

Article 41 of the Maritime Code lists the claims that create a maritime lien. It opens with wages, repatriation costs, social insurance contributions and other sums due to the master, the officers and the rest of the crew. Those claims come first in the list, and Article 42 then ranks liens in the order Article 41 sets out. So a crew wage claim sits at the top.

The one thing that can outrank it is salvage remuneration, and only where the salvage claim arose after the other liens.

Article 139(1) then carries every Article 41 claim into the arrest regime. A maritime lien for unpaid wages is therefore a ground to arrest the vessel, which is what gives an unpaid crew real leverage against an owner who has stopped answering.

The employment agreement the Code requires

Article 62 requires a written employment agreement before the seafarer starts work. Beyond the ordinary labour-law content, it must deal with four specific matters:

repatriation of the seafarer;
accident insurance;
payment for annual leave; and
the conditions for terminating the agreement.

Which law applies? That is Article 61. On Vietnamese-flag ships the labour regime follows Vietnamese law and the treaties Vietnam has joined. But for a Vietnamese seafarer on a foreign ship, or a foreign seafarer on a Vietnamese ship, the agreement itself governs. That single sentence decides a great many crewing disputes.

Paying seafarer wages in Vietnam

Article 65 is short and practical. The owner pays wages and allowances monthly, directly to the seafarer or to a person the seafarer has lawfully authorised. Payment may be in cash or into an account. Where it goes through a bank, the owner must agree with the seafarer who bears the cost of opening, transferring and maintaining the account.

The owner must also prepare and give the seafarer a monthly statement of wages, allowances and other income. In a later dispute those statements are usually the best evidence either side has.

Rest hours: ten in twenty-four, seventy-seven in seven

Article 63 adopts the international standard directly. The seafarer gets at least 10 hours of rest in any 24-hour period, and 77 hours in any 7-day period.

The detail matters as much as the totals. Rest in any 24 hours may be split into no more than two periods, one of which must be at least 6 hours, and the gap between consecutive rest periods may not exceed 14 hours. The work and rest schedule must be posted somewhere obvious on board.

In an emergency affecting the ship, the people or the cargo, or to assist another ship or save life at sea, the master may call anyone at any time. Once the emergency ends, though, the master must give compensatory rest.

Repatriation, and who pays for it

Article 66 obliges the owner to arrange repatriation and pay for it in six situations: the agreement expires; illness or maritime occupational injury requires it; the ship sinks; the ship is sold or changes registry; the ship trades into a war zone and the seafarer will not continue; or the parties have agreed further cases.

The costs are itemised. They cover travel to the agreed place of repatriation, food and lodging from leaving the ship until arrival, wages and travel allowance for that period, and carriage of baggage.

One provision surprises owners. Even where the seafarer resigns unlawfully or is dismissed for misconduct, the owner must still arrange the journey to the place named in the agreement. The owner may then recover the cost from the seafarer, but it cannot simply leave the crew where they are.

Article 61(2) adds a further rule. Where the owner or the master requires a seafarer to leave the ship, the owner pays all living and travel costs of getting home, and a master who orders it must report to the owner.

Illness, injury and death on board

When a seafarer suffers a maritime occupational accident or disease, Article 69 says what the owner covers. It is the co-payment and anything health insurance leaves out. That includes treatment, surgery, hospitalisation, medicines and necessary equipment. It also includes food and lodging, from first aid until recovery or until the condition is classified as chronic.

The owner also pays the full contractual wage throughout treatment. If the seafarer dies, the owner pays funeral costs and carries the body or ashes to the place of repatriation.

Two exclusions apply, and they are narrow: injury or illness arising outside the period of sea service, and injury or illness caused by the seafarer’s intentional act. The owner must also safeguard and return the seafarer’s property left on board.

One more duty sits in Article 61(3). If a casualty destroys a seafarer’s own property, the owner compensates it at market value at the time and place of settlement. That falls away only where the seafarer directly caused the casualty.

The lien on seafarer wages in Vietnam, and its one-year life

A maritime lien does not last indefinitely. Article 43 gives it one year, running from when the lien arose. For a wage claim that means from the date each payment fell due.

The lien also ends when the owner, charterer or operator pays the debt. Consequently the practical question for a crew is not whether they have a lien, but whether they will still have one by the time the ship next calls somewhere they can arrest her.

So diary the twelve months from the earliest unpaid month, not from the day the crew left the ship.

The owner’s standing duties

Article 51 requires the owner to man the ship to her safe manning level with seafarers who meet the Article 59 conditions, to define ranks and duties, to provide proper working and living conditions, and to buy accident insurance and the other compulsory insurances for the crew.

Each seafarer, in turn, must meet Article 59. That means permission to serve on a Vietnamese ship, the required health standard, the right age and professional certificates, an assigned rank, a seafarer’s book, and a passport for international trading.

Manning agents should read these two articles together. A crew that does not meet Article 59 is also a port State control finding waiting to happen.

What MLC 2006 adds to seafarer wages in Vietnam

Vietnam ratified the Maritime Labour Convention 2006 on 8 May 2013, and the Convention entered into force internationally on 20 August 2013. Article 61 of the Maritime Code brings the treaties Vietnam has joined into the labour regime for Vietnamese ships.

Read the Code beside the Convention and the overlap is deliberate. Compare the rest hours. Standard A2.3(5)(b) requires minimum rest of not less than ten hours in any 24-hour period and 77 hours in any seven-day period, and A2.3(6) allows no more than two periods, one at least six hours, with no more than 14 hours between consecutive rest periods. Article 63 of the Code says the same thing in the same numbers.

The written agreement sits in Regulation 2.1, wages in Regulation 2.2, repatriation in Regulation 2.5, and the owner’s liability for sickness, injury and death in Regulation 4.2.

Abandonment, and the financial security certificate

This is the part owners and crew most often miss, and it is the fastest route to money.

Standard A2.5.2(2) treats a seafarer as abandoned where the shipowner fails to cover repatriation, or leaves the seafarer without necessary maintenance and support, or otherwise unilaterally severs ties, including by failing to pay contractual wages for at least two months. That maintenance and support is defined in paragraph 5. It means adequate food, accommodation, drinking water, essential fuel for survival on board, and necessary medical care.

Every such ship must carry a certificate of financial security under paragraph 6. A copy goes up somewhere on board where the crew can see it, and under paragraph 7 it must be in English or carry an English translation. So the first thing an unpaid crew should photograph is that certificate.

What does the security actually cover? Under paragraph 9 it covers outstanding wages and entitlements, capped at four months of each. It also covers the expenses the seafarer reasonably incurs, repatriation included. And under paragraph 8, the provider must grant assistance promptly once the seafarer, or a nominated representative, asks.

Therefore a crew facing two months of arrears has two parallel routes: a claim on the financial security, which is quick and capped, and the maritime lien under Article 41, which is slower but uncapped and reaches the ship.

Legal basis

Maritime Code 2015 (Law No. 95/2015/QH13), consolidated as Document No. 52/VBHN-VPQH of 18 March 2026 — Article 41 (maritime liens, opening with crew wages, repatriation and social insurance); Article 42 (priority); Article 43 (one-year life of the lien); Article 50 (the complement); Article 51 (owner’s duties to the complement, including compulsory insurance); Article 59 (conditions to serve, including the seafarer’s book); Article 60 (seafarer’s duties); Article 61 (labour regime, treaties, leaving the ship, loss of personal property); Article 62 (employment agreement and its four mandatory terms); Article 63 (work and rest hours); Article 64 (annual leave and public holidays); Article 65 (payment of wages and the monthly statement); Article 66 (repatriation and its costs); Article 67 (food and drinking water); Article 68 (health care); Article 69 (occupational accident and disease); Articles 70–72 (reporting, prevention and training); Article 139(1) (Article 41 claims as a ground of arrest).
Maritime Labour Convention 2006, as amended (consolidated text including the 2014, 2016, 2018 and 2022 amendments), ratified by Vietnam on 8 May 2013 — Regulation 2.1 (employment agreements); Regulation 2.2 (wages); Regulation 2.3 and Standard A2.3(5)(b) and (6) (hours of rest); Regulation 2.5 and Standard A2.5.2 (repatriation and financial security for abandonment, including the four-month cap in paragraph 9 and the on-board certificate in paragraphs 6 and 7); Regulation 4.2 (shipowners’ liability).
STCW 1978, as amended, for certification and watchkeeping standards behind Article 59.

How we act on seafarer wages in Vietnam

Unilaw acts for crew and unions recovering unpaid wages and repatriation costs, and for owners, managers and manning agents answering those claims. Because the claim runs against the ship and not only against the employer, we deal with the lien position and the arrest option at the same time as the employment analysis.

For the wider practice see our Vietnam maritime lawyer page. To enforce the lien against the vessel, see ship arrest in Vietnam. If the port authority is holding the ship instead, see vessel detention in Vietnam. On cover for crew liabilities, see marine insurance in Vietnam. For flagging, mortgages and priority, see ship registration in Vietnam. Further judgments sit in our maritime law library.