On 25 June, BIMCO announced the publication of their novel COVID-19 Crew Change Clause for Time Charter Parties. The clause provides shipowners with the right to deviate for crew changes ‘if COVID-19 related restrictions prevent crew changes from being conducted at the ports or places to which the vessel has been ordered or within the scheduled period of call’. Shipowners can exercise their right to deviate by giving charterers a written notice as soon as reasonably possible. The crew change costs will rest on shipowners, unless shipowners and charterers agree that the vessel will remain on hire during the deviation period, but at a reduced rate. In such case, the cost of bunkers consumed will be shared equally between shipowners and charterers.
With more than 200,000 seafarers currently working on board after the expiry of their contracts of employment, the COVID-19 Crew Change Clause at least ensures that shipowners can sail to those few ports were crew changes are possible, without facing the risk of breaching their contractual obligations under time charters. It should be noted, however, that this is not a panacea to the issue of crew changes. Recognising seafarers as ‘keyworkers’ and designating ports where crew changes can take place safely following the Protocols designed by the IMO (Circular Letter No 4204/Add 14 (5 May 2020) should remain a priority.
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Dr Zoumpoulia Amaxilati
I am a lecturer in shipping and trade law at the Institute of International Shipping and Trade Law at Swansea University where I teach Admiralty law, Charterparties: law and practice, Carriage of goods by sea, land and air, and Tort law. I am a graduate of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, and hold an LLM degree in Maritime Law from the University of Southampton. I also completed my PhD degree in maritime law with emphasis on seafarers’ rights at the University of Southampton in 2019.
Before joining the Institute, I worked as a lecturer in law at Queen Mary, University of London where I taught tort law. I was also a tutor in law at the University of Southampton. I am a qualified lawyer in Greece and prior to her PhD studies I worked as a lawyer at the Ministry of Justice, Transparency and Human Rights of Greece.
My primary research focuses on international maritime labour law and seafarers’ rights, international maritime law, public international law, including international law of the sea, and tort law. I have recently published a book chapter in Baris Soyer and Andrew Tettenborn (Ed), Disruptive Technologies, Climate Change and Shipping (Informa Law from Routledge) on the human element in autonomous shipping.
I am a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. I am also a member of the Society of Legal Scholars and the Women in Shipping and Trading Association.
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