[Code of Federal Regulations]
[Title 29, Volume 3]
[Revised as of July 1, 2004]
From the U.S. Government Printing Office via GPO Access
[CITE: 29CFR783.35]

[Page 658]
 
                             TITLE 29--LABOR
 
         CHAPTER V--WAGE AND HOUR DIVISION, DEPARTMENT OF LABOR
 
PART 783_APPLICATION OF THE FAIR LABOR STANDARDS ACT TO EMPLOYEES EMPLOYED 
AS SEAMEN--Table of Contents
 
Sec. 783.35  Employees serving as ``watchmen'' aboard vessels in port.

    Various situations are presented with respect to employees rendering 
watchman or similar service aboard a vessel in port. Members of the 
crew, who render such services during a temporary stay in port or during 
a brief lay-up for minor repairs, are still employed as ``seamen''. 
Where the vessel is laid up for a considerable period, members of the 
crew rendering watchman or similar services aboard the vessel during 
this period would not appear to be within the special provisions 
relating to seamen because their services are not rendered primarily as 
an aid in the operation of the vessel as a means of transportation. See 
Desper v. Starved Rock Ferry Co., 342 U.S. 187. Furthermore, employees 
who are furnished by independent contractors to perform watchman or 
similar services aboard a vessel while in port would not be employed as 
seamen regardless of the period of time the vessel is in port, since 
such service is not of the type described in Sec. 783.31. The same 
considerations would apply in the case of members of a temporary or 
skeleton crew hired merely to maintain the vessel while in port so that 
the regular crew may be granted shore leave. On the other hand, licensed 
relief officers engaged during relatively short stays in port whose duty 
it is to maintain the ship in safe and operational condition and who 
exercise the authority of the master in his absence, including keeping 
the log, checking the navigation equipment, assisting in the movement of 
the vessel while in port, are employed as seamen within the meaning of 
the exemptions. The same may be true of licensed relief engineers 
employed under the same circumstances whose duty it is to maintain the 
ship's auxiliary machinery in operation and repair (see Pratt v. Alaska 
Packers Asso. (N.D. Calif.) 9 WH Cases 61).