Vacation
Process for Taking It
Our vacation plans average between 27/30 and 30/30, and we pay it out whenever you want. You can bank or backdate your vacation to ensure full covered years for pension and healthcare.
Relation to Medical
You can use your vacation days to extend your medical benefits for up to 2 years, so if for some reason you cannot work, you can be sure you and your family will be protected. Because you only need 60 days of covered employment to extend your benefits for up to 6 months, you could bank enough vacation days after a single 90-day contract to ensure you can keep your medical for 18 months.
Meet Keith, member since 2005
Chief Engineer, Matson
M.E.B.A. Vacation Plan
The M.E.B.A. Vacation Plan pays full base wages and benefits on time earned for your requested non-working days. To be covered, you must work under a M.E.B.A. contract that includes the Vacation Plan, in which all deep sea contracts participate.
Masters and Chief Mates generally accrue 30 days of vacation for 30 days of covered employment. For 2nd Mates and 3rd Mates, the amount of vacation days accrued varies by contract but generally averages around 27 vacation days for 30 days of covered employment. In other words, Masters and Chief Mates get a day off with full pay and benefits for every day they work and 2nd and 3rd Mates get 9 fully paid days off for every 10 worked. These benefits are already in place in the OSG/ATC engine rooms.
Additional paid vacation days can be accrued by converting overtime onboard into vacation days. This process is entirely optional for the Officer but provides the flexibility to utilize overtime once converted to vacation to accommodate individual needs, such as extending medical benefits and pension coverage.
Once you have 30 days of covered employment, you can apply for vacation. Vacations can be taken in full or partial payouts up to 5 times and then will be required to pay all time. To reset your vacation back to the start of partials you will need 30 days of new covered employment to submit. Less than 30 days would need to be paid in full when submitted if you do not have any carry-over time banked. When you file for vacation the maximum days you can leave on the books is 90 days of regular vacation and 90 days of converted overtime. Vacation can be filed at any Union Hall, or remotely with the Vacation Department via mail, fax, or email.
30 Days of Covered Employment after signing up grants you and your family 6 months of medical coverage. Thereafter, any combination of 60 days of covered employment/vacation/converted OT vacation extends your medical coverage for another 6 months. With a bank of vacation days, you can extend your medical for years without ever working. After one 90-day trip, you can get medical coverage for up to a year and a half.