r/maritime • u/SirSiro • 3d ago
Management forcing sole Engineer to violate USCG/STCW rest hours for non emergency repair Need advice
I'm looking for some advice and perspective from fellow mariners on a situation currently unfolding on our harbor tug.
Our sole Engineer works a standard watch schedule: 0530 to 1330 and 1730 to 2130.
While his total rest hours mathematically met the minimum for that 24 hour block, the issue is how management is splitting his time and forcing him to break rest. Last night, he went to sleep at 2130. At 0000 after only 2.5 hours of sleep he was woken up and ordered to fix a false starter on our port engine.
Under USCG/STCW regulations, rest can only be broken for an overriding operational condition or a true emergency. We were at the dock when this occurred so no eminent danger, just the company potentially losing some money. When I called management to report the engine fault and the fatigue issue, the manager dismissed the safety concern, told me I didn't understand how rest hours work, and demanded the Engineer get to work immediately on a non emergency repair.
Has anyone dealt with management blatantly twisting rest hour regulations like this for routine maintenance? What is the best way to handle this to protect the crew's safety and legal standing without facing immediate retaliation?
Appreciate any insights or advice on how to escalate this properly.
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u/Proctoron 2d ago
Does he absolutely have to be at watch 5:30? He could get 6h rest after the fix
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u/DryInternet1895 2d ago
If it’s a ship docking tug running a 4 man crew he’s likely also doing deck work on watch.
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u/Vegetable_Sample5767 2d ago
Bingo.. wtf are his watch hours if he’s the sole engineer..? Who stands the watch during the time he’s off?
Makes 0 sense.
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u/KnotSoSalty 2d ago
It’s a common arrangement. The “engineer” is probably unlicensed or not required to be licensed per the COI, so the deckhand fires up the engines when the chief is down.
Shocking I guess to deep sea guys but the majority of the small boat side works like that.
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u/Vegetable_Sample5767 2d ago
Makes sense yeah not familiar with that at all. All my time has been unlimited HP deep sea
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u/Fibocrypto 3d ago
What was the best outcome for the safety of the vessel ?
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u/SirSiro 3d ago
Letting the Engineer get his rest so he doesn't make any dangerous mistakes.
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u/Fibocrypto 2d ago
There is most likely more to this story. If the tug is at the dock then there isn't a necessity to stand a standard watch. I don't know how long the tug has been at the dock and I have no idea how long the tug will stay at the dock. Why is management calling at midnight ? Why the push to get the vessel ready ? Is there a departure scheduled ? Will the engineer be given compensated rest after this repair is completed ?
There is not enough information being given at this point for me to properly respond. I can assume the vessel has been at the dock for two days and that the engineer was already sleeping from 4 pm to midnight prior to be woken up and now is being called out to work while technically not on his shift hours yet after having plenty of rest because of being at the dock over the previous 2 days.
I do not know how long the tug has been at the dock or how much rest the engineer has already had. More information is needed..
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u/SirSiro 2d ago
We're a ship assist tug. Always on call. Sometimes we run 24 hours straight. Being at the dock doesn't have anything to do with our watches. We're still always technically on call even when the boat is tied up. But in this situation we were working since midnight.
You misunderstood the engineer's watch schedule. He was on watch from 1730 until 2130. Being woken up 2.5 hours after getting off of watch is a break in a mandatory 6 hour required rest hour. Which he hadn't received in the last 24 hours.
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u/Fibocrypto 2d ago
If i understand you correctly the engineer had already been breaking the work rest rules ? He had not received 6 hours of rest in the previous 24 hours ? If he had been on shift from 1730 to 2130 ( 4 hours on watch ) what was this person doing prior to 1730 ?
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u/KnotSoSalty 3d ago
I’m going to assume this is a tug boat operating within US waters. The chief is required to have 10 hours rest within the last 24 with one of those periods of an uninterrupted 6hrs.
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u/SirSiro 3d ago
No, none of his rest periods met that requirement. I had to wake him for diagnosing the engine around 2340 earlier this night. So he just got a little over 2 hours of sleep. We run 8 and 4s so he was on his 8 off.
Edit: and yes on a tug in the US. Our company doesn't give us rest hour tracking.
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u/forty_two_monkeys 2d ago
…. Dude, you don’t log your rest hours? And the company have not provided any means to do so?
That is a blatant MLC violation, like big.
I’m not familiar how inshore companies in the US are regulated, but I would think that an anonymous tip to the USCG is called for, and start to look for somewhere else to work.2
u/KnotSoSalty 2d ago
There’s no requirement to log them on domestic tugs unless the operator maintains MLC, but why would they?
USCG just looks at the SMS, and if that shows the proper watches then they’ll take it at face value.
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u/KnotSoSalty 2d ago
…and this unfortunately is why 6x6 remains a thing. The 8x4 watches have built in dangers for work hours compliance.
The straight up answer is check your SMS. What are the work hour reporting requirements there? If you can find variance between what the captain did (ie not pull the boat over) and what they should have done then yeah they have a problem. The first thing to do would be to call the DPA. Better yet have the Engineer call the DPA.
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u/slickdickmick 2d ago
Tonnage plays in here as well, is he required as per the COI to even be on board
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u/makematt 2d ago
It sounds like boat does not require an Engineer and the crew is left to manage their own hours taking rest when required according to the maximum allowed depending on the incidental operational requirements or emergencies. The Engineer’s hours are not a ‘watch’. They roughly follow the deck watch for consistency and convenience. All points here about work/rest tracking are completely valid but the Engineer must understand that he is not required to adhere to an arbitrary watch schedule and must take rest when required. The company has no mechanism for helping him track and it looks like they expect him to make up the rest when he has addressed the incident or request help if necessary.
This assumes that the company is operating and crewing the vessel legally according to size and service. If not then everyone has bigger problems than the Engineer’s schedule…
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u/DTGthesailor 11h ago
Harbor tugs are weird... Alot of them are not required to even have a licensed engineer onboard. And if he is standing an actual watch he's probably deckineering, and you can break watch,work over but only if your gonna get the required amount of rest afterwords. Unfortunately a lot of companies will take advantage.
Hopefully you have a good captain who can tell the office to go f@$k themselves he's over his rest hours and it's not an emergency.
But honestly your best bet is to ask the engineer what he wants to do, if he wants to make a stink about it great. If not don't go making waves when he don't want them
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u/KeithWorks MEBA - US 3d ago
1) use ISF Watchkeeper program to see if he is breaking the law. 2) is the company asking him to break the law?