[Code of Federal Regulations]
[Title 29, Volume 3]
[Revised as of July 1, 2005]
From the U.S. Government Printing Office via GPO Access
[CITE: 29CFR783.33]

[Page 612-613]
 
                             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. 783.33  Employment ``as a seaman'' depends on the work actually 
performed.

    Whether an employee is ``employed as a seaman'', within the meaning 
of the Act, depends upon the character of the work he actually performs 
and not on what it is called or the place where it is performed (Walling 
v. Haden, 153 F. 2d 196; Cuascut v. Standard Dredging Corp., 94 F. Supp. 
197). Merely because one works aboard a vessel (Helena Glendale Ferry 
Co. v. Walling, 132 F. 2d 616; Walling v. Bay State Dredging & 
Contracting Co., 149 F. 2d 346), or may be articled as a seaman (see 
Walling v. Haden, supra), or performs some maritime duties (Walling v. 
Bay State Dredging & Contracting Co., 149 F. 2d 346; Anderson v. 
Manhattan Lighterage Corp., 148 F. 2d 971) one is not employed as a 
seaman within the meaning of the Act unlessone's services are rendered 
primarily as an aid in the operation of the

[[Page 613]]

vessel as a means of transportation, as for example services performed 
substantially as an aid to the vessel in navigation. For this reason it 
would appear that employees making repairs to vessels between navigation 
seasons would not be ``employed as'' seamen during such a period. (See 
Desper v. Starved Rock Ferry Co., 342 U.S. 187; but see Walling v. 
Keansburg Steamboat Co., 162 F. 2d 405 in which the seaman exemption was 
allowed in the case of an article employee provided he also worked in 
the ensuing navigation period but not in the case of unarticled 
employees who only worked during the lay-up period.) For the same and 
other reasons, stevedores and longshoremen are not employed as seamen. 
(Knudson v. Lee & Simmons, Inc., 163 F. 2d 95.) Stevedores or roust-
abouts traveling aboard a vessel from port to port whose principal 
duties require them to load and unload the vessel in port would not be 
employed as seamen even though during the voyage they may perform from 
time to time certain services of the same type as those rendered by 
other employees who would be regarded as seamen under the Act.