Courts take action to protect rights of maritime crews

Chinese courts have taken various measures to protect the legitimate rights and interests of crew members over the past few years to ensure marine traffic safety and promote the healthy and stable development of the shipping industry.

Highlighting the significance of the protection, the Supreme People's Court, China's top court, issued a judicial interpretation in 2020, providing guidance to solve disputes involving employment contracts and payment.

Meanwhile, maritime courts have set up quick channels for dealing with disputes concerning personal injuries and labor conflicts, so as to accelerate the implementation of rulings to better protect crew members' rights.

The courts have also collaborated with government agencies to build a pre-litigation resolution system to improve the efficiency of case handling, with more legal aid given to crew members.

In addition, more humanitarian assistance has been provided by the courts for stranded foreign sailors.

The moves were outlined in a report on China Maritime Trials that was released by the top court on Monday, demonstrating the country's efforts in safeguarding national marine rights and interests, protecting the marine ecology and environment, and promoting the development of a superior maritime economy.

According to the report, maritime courts concluded 133,309 disputes between 2018 and 2021, of which 10,611 involved foreign parties.

The foreign-related cases covered more than 100 countries and regions, including the Bahamas, the United States, Singapore, Germany and Denmark, it said.

During the period, maritime courts made judicial protection of the marine environment a priority, "as the protection of marine natural resources and the ecological environment is the fundamental requirement and basic guarantee for accelerating the construction of a strong maritime country," it said.

The courts also solved cases regarding cargo transportation, integrated logistics and collisions to ensure the safety of shipping, maintain the stability of the international logistics supply chain and serve the development of the shipping sector, it said.

They also focused more on cases involving the advanced ship manufacturing industry and the modern service sector, such as ship repair and construction, as well as shipping finance and insurance to speed up the transformation and upgrading of shipbuilding, expand the service chain and help create a favorable environment for growth.

In October, the report to the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China called for the development of the marine economy and the protection of the marine ecological environment, with promotion of high-level opening-up.

Chinese courts pledged to implement the report to speed up the building of a marine power by rule of law.