Seaman generally NOT entitled to overtime pay

We agree with petitioners, however, that private respondent is not entitled to the overtime pay awarded to him by the POEA. The ruling in National Shipyards and Steel Corporation vs. CIR and Malondras is in point, and there the Court, through Justice J.B.L. Reyes, has said: "We can not agree with the Court below that respondent Malondras should be paid overtime compensation for every hour in excess of the regular working hours that he was board on his vessel or barge each day, irrespective of whether or not he actually put in work during those hours. Seamen are required to stay on board their vessels by the very nature of their duties, and it is for this reason that, in addition to their regular compensation, they are given free living quarters and subsistence allowances when required to be on board. It could not have been the purpose of our law to require their employers to pay them overtime even when they are not actually working: otherwise, every sailor on board a vessel would be entitled to overtime for sixteen hours each day, even if he had spent all those hours resting or sleeping in his bunk, after his regular tour of duty. The correct criterion in determining whether or not sailors are entitled to overtime pay is not, therefore, whether they were on board and cannot leave ship beyond the regular eight working hours a day, but whether they actually rendered service in excess of said number of hours." [G.R. No. 105396. November 19, 1996]