Overview of the Act
The objective of the Seafarers’ Wages Act 2023 is to improve remuneration for seafarers with close ties to the UK. The Act is part of the Secretary of State for Transport’s nine-point plan1, announced on Wednesday 30 March 2022.
	The Act applies to services which carry goods or people by ship between a place outside the UK and a place in the UK. The Act requires harbour authorities to ask the operator of a service which enters a UK harbour 120 times or more in a year for a declaration. The declaration is that seafarers on the service who do not qualify for the UK national minimum wage (NMW) are being paid at least an equivalent rate to the UK NMW while working in the UK or its territorial waters. Harbour authorities must impose surcharges when operators fail to provide a declaration or where they operate a service inconsistently with a declaration. Subject to certain exceptions, the Act requires harbour authorities to refuse ships providing a service access to their harbour if they impose a surcharge and it is not paid.