These groups of seafarers can be entitled to have shorter periods of rest:
- Watchkeeping seafarers
- Seafarers whose work includes tasks related to safety and pollution prevention
- Seafarers working on board ships engaged on short voyages (such as ferry crossings)
It is, however, conditional upon the conclusion of a collective agreement that provides compensation in the form of more time off, time off in lieu of wages or the like. Such agreements must take appropriate account of the seafarer's health and safety, including the prevention of fatigue.
Such special collective agreements must not be used until they have been recorded with the Danish Maritime Authority. Requests for having agreements on periods of rest recorded can be forwarded by email to: soc@dma.dk.
The recording is conditional upon the agreement ensuring at least the following:
- The period of rest must not have a duration of less than 70 hours during any seven-day period.
- Deviations from the provisions on hours of rest are not permitted for more than two consecutive weeks. This means that deviations from the weekly hours of rest are not permitted for more than one period of 14 days at a time, and that there must not be a third week with deviations.
- The interval between the two periods of deviation on board must not be less than twice the length of the period of deviation. This means that - if you have used the provision to its maximum (two weeks) - four weeks must pass from the last time of deviation without any deviation, i.e. where the seafarer has, on the one hand, 11 hours a day and, on the other hand, 77 hours a week. If this occurs only during one week, two weeks must pass.
- It is possible to divide the periods of rest into not more than three periods, at least one of which must have a length of 6 hours, and neither of the two other periods must have a length of less than 1 hour. The interval between two consecutive periods of rest must not exceed 14 hours.
- The deviations must not exceed two 24-hour periods during any seven-day period.