Greek Retired Seamen working on yachts

The typical situation in Greece is that when Greek seamen retire their licenses are stamped RETIRED etc and therefore cancelled. I suppose it is the same everywhere around the world. But if the seaman wishes to work for more years the solution is to obtain a Cyprus license. This is easy for him to do following some courses/examinations which are no problem.

Then with the Cyprus license he can obtain endorsement from any flag (except Greek) to man a vessel flying that flag.

The issue which arose recently on a large yacht (which it is not necessary to name) is that the Piraeus port authority noted that the crew list contained several retired Greek seaman and stopped their retirement payments pending court case regarding this "discrepancy".

The fact is that these seamen are completely entitled to their retirement payments following the correct amount of sea service.

Whether they choose to work more should not be an issue and indeed it is the common practice across the Greek Shipping Industry as such men are highly experienced and qualified therefore are a great asset to the industry if they choose to continue working in whatever sector whether ashore or at sea.

But in Greece the port authority applies regulations somewhat arbitrarily and indeed illogically (perhaps there are other factors which determine the treatment one receives). This yacht is not a Greek flagged one neither is the owner Greek. The port authority advises that this is a new regulation and the situation can be solved by signing on the seamen as "passengers". But then you have the problem that the Minimum Safe Manning would be affected (not actually but in statutory terms).

Giving another example of the illogical application of regulations, even if the yacht is less than 500gt the port authority may on occasion demand a Minimum Safe Manning Certificate even if the foreign flag do not deem it necessary to supply one for such size of yacht.

It is understood that this application of regulations in relation to the retired seamen would be intended to provide jobs for younger Greek seamen, which is accepted.

But it is very strange this whole issue has cropped up because the common industry practice is that retired Greek seamen can and do serve on foreign flagged ships or yachts. They would certainly be seeking for quite a few Masters and Chiefs if this was no longer permitted. We are already aware of a shortage of officers for the merchant ships let alone the ever growing fleet of large yachts.

It is likely that this is simply an incorrect application of regulations and pending court case it may be solved but I would like to raise this issue and also perhaps if anyone has had a similar recent experience they can give some advice.

The fact is that if you are a merchant ship company with many vessels it is easier to push the port authority around and overcome these "issues". The same if you have a large fleet of yachts. But if you are only one yacht no matter that it is rather large then it is more difficult to make an "impression".