Maritime & Shipping · United Kingdom
Seafarers stand watch systems such as six-on/six-off for weeks at a time, with broken sleep, noise and motion. Fatigue on watch raises the risk of grounding, collision and injury.
Reg Watch
Regulatory change that affects how you manage fatigue in maritime & shipping: what has changed in the last 12 months, and what is on the way.
Recent changeFrom 6 April 2026
Applies across industries in the United Kingdom
In Great Britain, from 6 Apr 2026 sick pay is due from the first day of sickness and you must keep holiday records for 6 years; from 1 Oct 2026 most tribunal claims can be brought up to 6 months after the event.
Read the changeUpcoming changeNo date set yet
Amendments to the Maritime Labour Convention agreed in 2025 (harassment and bullying, shore leave, repatriation, medical care) are expected to take effect internationally in December 2027. The ILO has called for joint work with the IMO on hours of work and rest. The MCA's review of the 2018 hours of work rules has published no proposals.
Regulatory changes checked as at 1 October 2026.
Regulation
Seafarers are excluded from the general 48-hour week and covered instead by the UK's merchant shipping hours-of-rest rules, which bring the Maritime Labour Convention and STCW into domestic law. Every seafarer on a UK ship must have at least 10 hours' rest in any 24 hours and 77 hours in any 7 days, taken in no more than two blocks, one of at least 6 hours, with no more than 14 hours between them. A collective or workforce agreement can go to 70 hours a week within tight limits. Fishing vessels, pleasure vessels and warships fall outside. Compliance is proved by the rest record and tested by inspection, not by tribunal claims.
UK shipping is regulated by its own dedicated maritime safety regulator, the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA), which applies international shipping conventions (STCW and the Maritime Labour Convention) through UK law. This sits alongside, but largely operates independently of, the general safety regulator and employment tribunal system that cover other UK industries.
On UK ships you must give every seafarer at least 10 hours' rest in any 24-hour period and 77 hours in any 7-day period, with the daily rest in no more than two periods, one of them at least 6 hours, and no more than 14 hours between the start of one rest period and the next. A collective or workforce agreement can cut the week to 70 hours, for no more than two 24-hour periods in a week and no more than two weeks running. Rest broken by drills or emergencies must be made good. Rest records must be completed monthly, signed by seafarer and master, kept for a year and produced on inspection, and fatigue addressed in the ship's safety management system.
Breaching these rules is a criminal offence, and falsifying rest records is a separate offence in its own right. Inspectors can detain a ship until the problem is fixed - an immediate, expensive commercial consequence beyond any fine, since a detained ship isn't earning. The regulator can also act against an individual seafarer or master's professional certificate if they falsified records. Injury claims still go through the general UK route (compulsory insurance and civil claims), since there's no special maritime version of no-fault compensation.
The rest-hour rules are criminal law: the company, the shipowner and the master can be prosecuted, and failing to keep the record - or writing it up to look compliant - is a separate offence. The sharper cost is operational. Port state control can detain the ship until rest hours are back in order, and a detained ship earns nothing while crew, bunkers and charter commitments run on. Officers can lose their certificate of competency, and injured crew sue in negligence.
Sources: Merchant Shipping (Maritime Labour Convention) (Hours of Work) Regulations 2018; MCA Merchant Shipping Notice MSN 1877 (M); Maritime and Coastguard Agency; Maritime Labour Convention 2006; STCW Convention; ISM Code; Marine Accident Investigation Branch.
Fatigue-critical roles
The roles where a fatigued worker is most likely to cause serious harm, the tasks that carry the risk, and why fatigue builds up in them.
| Role | Risk | High-risk tasks | Why fatigue builds |
|---|---|---|---|
Officer of the watch (OOW)Rules
| Critical risk | Keeping a bridge watch alone in the 00:00-04:00 or 04:00-08:00 watch; collision avoidance in coastal traffic; port arrival straight after cargo work | 6-on/6-off or 4-on/8-off watches, port-call cargo work eating rest, time-zone changes, months-long tours |
Engineer officer of the watch (EOOW)Rules
| Critical risk | Unmanned machinery space on-call alarm response at night; engine-room watch; bunkering, fuel changeover and blackout recovery after broken sleep | UMS on-call nights with repeated alarms, port maintenance during rest periods, heat and noise |
Marine pilotRules
| Critical risk | Conning large ships through pilotage waters at night; boarding by pilot ladder in swell; back-to-back jobs and long coastal pilotages | 24/7 on-call job lists, night jobs, long transits and travel between jobs, irregular rest |
Tug masterRules
| Critical risk | Ship-assist and harbour towage at night on short notice; towline handling near girting risk; coastal barge towing on two-watch systems | On-call 24 h harbour rosters, two-watch towing (6-on/6-off), back-to-back jobs |
Skipper / master (domestic passenger vessel, fishing vessel)Rules
| Critical risk | Skippering a ferry or workboat with minimum crew on long days; night fishing then steaming home after hauling; lone watch on small vessels | Long seasonal days, early starts, split shifts on commuter ferries, multi-day trips with fragmented sleep |
Able seafarer deck (watch rating)Rules
| High risk | Lookout and helm on night watches; mooring and anchor work during port calls that cut into rest; fire rounds | Watch rotations, port-call work in rest periods, long tours |
Stories
Published findings and prosecutions from regulators, courts and investigators in the United Kingdom.
How the suite fits
Grades describe how strongly a product connects to an obligation. None discharges an obligation, and none carries a compliance warranty.
You must not employ a seafarer without a valid medical fitness certificate under the Merchant Shipping (Maritime Labour Convention) (Medical Certification) Regulations 2010. Sleepfit supports sleep health between those medicals. It screens; diagnosis stays with your clinicians.
About SleepfitRegulation 56 of the Merchant Shipping (STCW) Regulations 2022 applies the STCW Code: watches must be arranged so watchkeepers are not impaired by fatigue. Fatiguefit4Duty supports that. A fitness-for-duty check, not a fitness-for-duty decision - the duty call stays with you.
About Fatiguefit4DutyUK merchant shipping rules on hours of rest set limits and name no fatigue training for seafarers. Awareness eLearning supports the general health and safety training you give your crews, with fatigue and sleep content and a completion record for your files.
About Awareness eLearningUK merchant shipping rules require marine accidents to be reported but name no fatigue review of their cause. Was It Fatigue? supports your own investigation of whether fatigue played a part. A structured judgement aid, not a determination of cause.
About Was It Fatigue?No UK shipping rule reaches sleep in new-parent households; rest-hour and watchkeeping rules attach to seafarers at sea. SleepWellBaby supports your working parents as a wellbeing benefit and not a compliance step.
About SleepWellBabyRecommended bundle
Every bundle is priced on prevalence: your whole cohort gets access, and you pay for the share predicted to need each product. How pricing works.
Proactive fatigue risk: assess, manage and train, with sleep screening underneath.
Assess, manage, investigate: from the Census to the point of duty to the post-incident review.
Why this pairing in the United Kingdom
Merchant Shipping (STCW) Regulations 2022 reg 56 requires watches arranged so watchkeepers are not impaired by fatigue; Fatiguefit4Duty supports that with a pre-watch check. Sleepfit screens between MLC medicals; Awareness eLearning trains crews. Fatigue Lifecycle adds review.
Tell us roughly how many people you employ. Your snapshot models how many are likely sleeping poorly and what it costs, from published research for maritime & shipping. Then choose who you’d cover, and we’ll take you to the right next step.
