褐水海员和偷渡者病毒:冠状病毒预防措施

当一个人想到古代或现代的海员, 航行穿过深海的画面, 蓝色的海洋在大陆之间的木制帆船或, 也许, 我想到的是乘坐超大型集装箱船远航.  这些“蓝水”海员, 然而, constitute only a small fraction of the crews that work onboard the vessels that make our economy run.  大多数船只在离家较近的水域航行, 包括拖船, 两船, 飞行员的船只, 起重驳船, 驳船, 疏通, 渡轮, 还有巡逻艇.  The maritime industry often refers to the crews of these vessels as “brown water” seamen, or, 在某些情况下, 作为“通勤”海员.  不像蓝水水手, 谁长时间住在大船上, brown water seamen generally work in tight quarters with fellow crewmembers on smaller vessels 和 return home after much shorter voyages.  事实上，许多通勤海员在辛苦工作一天后可以回家.

Although blue water seamen 和 brown water seamen have different voyage lengths 和 types of vessels on which they crew, 他们都享有“维护和治疗”的古老权利."根据一般海商法原则, employers owe this deep-rooted form of contractual compensation to seamen who fall ill or are injured while in the service of the employer’s vessel, 无论过错.  “Maintenance” requires the employer to provide food 和 lodging to an injured or ill seaman.  “治愈”要求他们支付治疗费用, 医疗, 以及医药费直到水手达到最大程度的治愈.  未能提供赔偿的雇主可以, 在某些情况下, be forced to pay substantial punitive damages as well as the seaman’s attorney fees.

在这个冠状病毒肆虐的时期, brown water employers should carefully consider when their obligations to provide maintenance 和 cure may arise.  涉及西尼罗河疾病的法律先例, 细菌感染, 脑炎, 性病, 毒素暴露, 淋巴瘤, 而肌炎为我们找到答案提供了一些指引.  在这些情况下, courts have consistently recognized that a shipowner must pay maintenance 和 cure for any illness that occurred, 是加重, 或在水手为船亚洲博彩平台排名的时候显现出来. 

Employers should be most concerned about the legal interpretation of “manifestation” given the more frequent shore leave between voyages enjoyed by brown water employees 和 the tighter work spaces onboard their vessels. 像许多其他病毒一样, Coronavirus has an extended incubation period 和 an infected individual may not show any symptoms for weeks, 如果有的话.  由于潜伏期长, a brown water seaman who looks 和 feels healthy upon entering the workplace or boarding his assigned vessel may still carry a stowaway virus.  Working in tight quarters, such a carrier-crewman could infect some or all of the remaining crew.  用于维护和治疗, it does not matter that the carrier-crewman contracted the virus during a shore leave 和 while doing nothing in the service of his employer’s vessel.  The employer’s duty to pay maintenance is triggered when a seaman first manifests symptoms while in service of the employer’s vessel.  When a carrier-crewman first manifests symptoms during the voyage but contracted the virus while on leave, 一个合理的标准应该适用于维护和修复持续的时间.  然而, 如果船员在航行中传染给其他船员, the brown water employer (和 its insurance carrier) could find itself paying maintenance 和 cure for a much longer period in a bruising financial cycle as the stowaway virus spreads through the entire fleet.

Seamen have a legal obligation to report to their employer at the start of a voyage if they do not feel fit for duty.  Employers who choose to simply rely upon this legal obligation will likely find themselves in a maintenance 和 cure whirlwind 和 should adopt proactive procedures.  Maritime employers have avoided paying maintenance 和 cure by proving that the employee willfully concealed an illness or that the employee engaged in intentional misconduct.  Brown water employers should keep these defenses in mind during the current Coronavirus p和emic 和, 在可行的情况下, should have each potential crewmember complete 和 endorse a written pre-voyage screening report.  如果有必要，这可以通过远程计算机访问来完成.  Each seaman should complete the report at the outset of a voyage 和 before contact with other crewmembers. The report should include a section requiring the seaman to explain in detail all public activities performed during his or her shore leave.  The report should include a list of Coronavirus symptoms obtained from a qualified health care professional 和 should ask each crewman if he or she has experienced any of the symptoms while on shore leave.    The report should ask each crew member to identify any contact made with anyone diagnosed with Coronavirus or who has displayed any of the symptoms of the illness.  These completed screening reports can be used to prevent potential Coronavirus carriers from boarding the vessel, 和, 如果一艘船员航母真的上了船, his report can also go a long way in establishing any willful concealment of 医疗 conditions.  另外, if the crewmember fails to accurately detail his public activities during shore leave, then the employer can use the report to establish the employee’s intentional misconduct during shore leave should ill-advised public activities later come to light.  通过采取这些预防措施, maritime employers not only stop potential maintenance 和 cure concerns before they arise but also protect themselves against an influx of unseaworthiness 和 Jones Act claims from healthy seamen infected by a stowaway virus.

汤姆伯克利 是一个澳门亚洲博彩平台排名 & 科沃德律师，专注于海事和水岸法.