When you get hurt on a typical job site, the foreman or crew boss might send you off to a local hospital or doctor's office for treatment, maybe a few stitches. But when you get hurt on a seafaring vessel, you're a world away from access to a hospital or doctor's...
Maintenance & Cure
How can you cope with work-related depression?
You no doubt chose to go into the maritime industry because of a love of the sea (or perhaps you have developed one after years of working in such an industry). Yet despite your affinity for sea travel, you may experience times where being out on the ocean for...
Identifying common maritime injuries
A career in the maritime industry (whether that be working at sea or in a seaport), brings with it the opportunity for many unique challenges (which is why so many in New York City are likely drawn to it). Yet with the uniqueness of this particular career path also...
What is MRSA?
Among the myriad of risks facing maritime workers, they must also be concerned about contracting methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). These infections can cause serious harm and are often resistant to many of the medications used to treat bacterial...
The maritime equivalent of workers’ compensation
For most workers in New York, workers’ compensation pays claims when injured or if they experience a work-related illness on the job. However, if you are a seaman working aboard a vessel, the remedies for injuries or illness may not be as well known. At...
What benefits are available under maintenance and cure?
If you sustained an injury while working on a barge, ship or another water-based vessel, you may have rights that extend beyond traditional workers' compensation benefits. New York workers' comp law grants injured workers the right to repayment for necessary medical...
How insurance companies may try to deprive you of benefits
Working on a sea vessel in New York is different than working at a job on dry land. In the former case, if you become injured on the job, you do not receive workers' compensation. Instead, if the Jones Act applies, you receive maintenance and cure benefits. At...
5 Tips to stay warm while doing maritime work in the winter
As temperatures continue to drop and the wind off the Atlantic stays strong, the numbing cold is liable to lead maritime workers to an accident.If you work out at sea, here are a few ways you can stay safe during the winter. Wear layers (and lots of them)When...
The limits of maintenance and cure benefits
When those whose work involves sailing out of Manhattan's ports are injured during their voyages, their concerns typically center on three important elements: wages, maintenance and cure. One might think that an employer can argue that while a seafarer is not working...
Future maritime professionals help in Amazon rainforest
If you are employed as a maritime worker, you have most likely heard of SUNY Maritime College in the Bronx. This venerable institution has been training future maritime professionals for nearly a century and a half. They offer students undergraduate and graduate...