Legal Entitlement to Overtime Pay for Seamen
Dear PAO,
I worked for a domestic shipping company that delivers consignments from Metro Manila to different parts of the Philippines. I resigned from the shipping company last month. I would like to know if I can receive overtime pay since I stayed in the cargo vessel for at least three months whenever I was on duty. Although we did not work beyond eight hours, we could only leave the shipping vessel once all the cargoes were delivered. I am now demanding overtime pay from my former employer before I sign the quitclaim they sent me. Am I legally entitled to overtime pay? Anthony
Understanding Overtime Pay for Seamen
The Labor Code mandates overtime pay for additional work performed in excess of the normal eight hours of work a day. The rate of overtime pay is an additional 25 percent of the hourly rate for work performed in excess of eight hours on an ordinary day. (Article 87, Labor Code of the Philippines)
In several cases, the Supreme Court has already ruled that the rendition of overtime work and the submission of sufficient proof that said work was actually performed are conditions to be satisfied before a seaman could be entitled to overtime pay. In your case, you already admitted that you were not mandated to perform work beyond the eight-hour period. Citing an earlier case, the Supreme Court held in the case of Julio N. Cagampan et al. vs. National Labor Relations Commission and Ace Maritime Agencies, Inc., GRs 85122-24, March 22, 1991, through Associate Justice Edgardo Paras, that “seamen are required to stay on board their vessels by the very nature of their duties. It is for this reason that, in addition to their regular compensation, they are given free living quarters and subsistence allowances when required to be on board. It could not have been the purpose of our law to require their employers to pay them overtime even when they are not actually working; otherwise, every sailor on board a vessel would be entitled to overtime for sixteen hours each day, even if he had spent all those hours resting or sleeping in his bunk, after his regular tour of duty.”
Hence, the correct criterion in determining whether or not you are entitled to overtime pay is not, therefore, whether you cannot leave the ship for a specific period, but whether you actually rendered service in excess of the regular work hours. You must submit sufficient proof that overtime was actually performed.