{"id":1677,"date":"2015-06-01T18:54:39","date_gmt":"2015-06-01T18:54:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fiskusa.com\/blog\/commercial-diving\/when-is-a-commercial-diver-a-seaman-3-factors-to-consider\/"},"modified":"2015-07-01T18:00:35","modified_gmt":"2015-07-01T18:00:35","slug":"when-is-a-commercial-diver-a-seaman-3-factors-to-consider","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fiskusa.com\/blog\/commercial-diving\/when-is-a-commercial-diver-a-seaman-3-factors-to-consider\/","title":{"rendered":"When is a commercial diver a seaman? 3 factors to consider"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Jones Act of 1920 is a crucial piece of maritime legislation that can affect the fate of commercial divers who are injured. As attorneys Delise &amp; Hall mention on their website, the Act gives divers&nbsp;some&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/A window coverings energy efficiency standard is in the works, set for completion by 2019.\" target=\"_blank\">legal protections in the event of injury<\/a>. However, to determine&nbsp;if an employee is covered, they need to be designated as a seaman, which may be complicated.<\/p>\n<p>Even if a diver is working for a marine company, that doesn&#039;t necessarily mean they are included in the language of the act. So, who exactly does the law include as a seaman, and in what situations? Here are three factors that can influence&nbsp;this status and therefore dictate whether or not the law applies:&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Connection with a vessel:&nbsp;<\/strong>To qualify as a seaman, a commercial diver has to be involved with vessels and be actively working, although not necessarily for one ship in particular. While this seems like a broad piece of criteria, it can be useful in classifying&nbsp;divers that change employers frequently or work in a freelance capacity.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Nature of a craft: <\/strong>The diver isn&#039;t the only party who has to pass legal requirements. The Act depends upon their work being performed in the service of a &quot;vessel,&quot; which could exclude&nbsp;work platforms or permanently moored ships. The source identifies the key phrase &quot;vessel in navigation&quot; as a way of differentiating between vessels and platforms.<strong>&nbsp;<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Work function:&nbsp;<\/strong>Does the diver contribute significant work to a vessel? They have to be involved in the &quot;mission&quot; of the craft to be eligible, which could&nbsp;require a thorough legal assessment.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/fiskusa.com\/\" target=\"_self\" class=\"dnautolink\">Commercial diving insurance<\/a> can accommodate workers in intensive, specific fields, and also provide compensation that matches their legal status as a marine worker under the&nbsp;Jones Act.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>These three factors could impact whether a commercial diver is protected under the Jones Act as a seaman.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1678,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fiskusa.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1677"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fiskusa.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fiskusa.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fiskusa.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fiskusa.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1677"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/fiskusa.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1677\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1682,"href":"https:\/\/fiskusa.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1677\/revisions\/1682"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fiskusa.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1678"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fiskusa.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1677"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fiskusa.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1677"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fiskusa.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}