Salary
The salary of seamen varies according to their position and is dependent on the employer or the hiring company. Their entitlements included benefits such as medical insurance, standby pay for senior officers, and good performance
bonus for officers.[4] In the 1980s, the minimum pay set by the International Transport Workers' Federation for able-bodied (AB) seamen was around US$800 month
ly, including fringe benefits, holiday pay, and overtime pay. Based on the bill by TUCP secretary general and former Philippine Senator Ernesto Herrera,[1] the lowest pay for a Filipino seaman aboard foreign ships was US$450 monthly, which was based on the minimum pay of US$276 set by the International Labor Organization as the monthly base pay for an able-bodied seaman who is the lowest ranking crewmember of a ship.[2]
According to Manolo I. Abella's Export of Filipino Manpower, the statistics from the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) of the Philippines indicated that there were 18,293 Filipino marine engineers and 15,965 deck officers registered with the PRC in 1976. The registry of the National Seamen's Board (NSB) had 82,373 registrants during the beginning of July 1977. From the 82,373, 20.9% (17,255) were registered as qualified ship officers, the reset were registered as qualified crewmen.[2]
Contribution to Philippine economy
Filipino seamen is a major segment of overseas Filipino workers who contributed to the Philippine economy. In 2008, according to Doris Magsaysay-Ho, 28,000 Filipino seamen remitted US$3 billion to the Philippines from Japan alone.[7] According to the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP), the total of financial remittances sent to the Philippines by overseas Filipino seamen was US$2.501 billion during the first nine months of 2009 (US$2.393 billion in 2008).[1]
Contribution to world trade
In 2010, according to the Business Monitor, Efthimios E. Mitropoulos, the secretary-general of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) described Filipino seamen as sailors who were “unsung heroes” of an “unsung industry”, namely the shipping industry that carried “most of the world trade in goods”. Mitropoulos further stated that the “international community should pay tribute to the Filipino seafarers” and to the Philippines for their contributions to the shipping and international seaborne trade.[6] On a similar note, United Nations secretary-general Ban Ki-moon hoped that many Filipino youth would join the seamen's profession.[6]
