Back and neck injuries are wild cards in company continuation plans

If you’re a mariner and your employer asks you to sign a waiver to keep you from suing them in exchange for a temporary raise, there’s something very important to keep in mind.

Back and neck injuries can often begin as dormant volcanoes without producing debilitating pain until months later. If your company has its way, you will be SOL—shot out of luck—without recourse to receive adequate medical treatment after they convinced you to take a temporary raise instead.

Tanker company OSG is one such employer that is trying this strategy as part of an industry-wide effort to convince seafarers to sign away their Jones Act rights. Under their “Salary Continuation Plan,” the company would give a 50 percent increase in base wages and union benefits for two months in exchange for waiving all future rights to sue for medical compensation.

Read more in our story Shipping companies trying to buyout seamen’s Jones Act rights.

See the OSG Salary Continuation Plan here.

So if you injure your back and neck and don’t feel too bad at first, remember that if three months later the pain becomes debilitating, your shipping company will say, “Tough Luck. You signed away your right to do anything about it.”

Before you sign a salary continuation plan, or even if you already have signed one, consult with an experienced maritime law firm to see where you stand.