Evening star., 1940-07-16
What Is a 5eaman!'
Question Leading 10
Courts and Strike
.Crux in Recent D. G.
Building Tie-up Hos
Many interpretations

Building Tie-up Has
Many interpretations
What is a seaman?
That sounds like q simple ques-
tion. but don't be hasty In answer
ing. Differences of opinion on the
definition have led to the United
States Supreme Court. And only
recently a dispute on the subject
caused Washington strike which
laid off $500 construction workers
and paralyzed millions Of dollars
worth of public and private build
ing in the District
The Smoot Sand e. Gravel Corp.
and $50 of its employees maintained
that the company's Potomac River
dredge workers were "seamen" and,
as such, exempt from the Labor
Standards Act 42-hour-a-week reg
ulation.
At first, however, the Wage and
Hour Division of the Labor Depart
ment refused to recognize this con-
tention 1t referred to the divisions
Interpretative Bulletin No. IL, issued
in July, 1899, which held that the
term seaman" did not include en-
ployes on floating equipment en-
gagged in dredging operations or In
the digging or processing OF sand,
gravel and other materials.
This bulletin, moreover, defined
the seaman's duties as service
which is rendered primarily as an
aid in the operation of vessel
as means of transportation, pro-
vided he performs no substantial
amount of work of a different char
acter." This applied, it was said,
to inland waters, as well as ocean,
going and coastwise craft. But di-
vision spokesmen said they did not
believe dredges could be classed as
vessels used as a means of trans
portation.
Dredge Workers Non -Seamen.
Dredge workers, in the bulletin.
were grouped as non- -seamen. along
with concessionaries, stevedores,
longshoremen and floating equip
ment workers constructing docks
and levees, caretakers of vessels
when loaded in port and handlers
Of receipts and inventories. Care
takers who handle tow lines, it was
explained in the bulletin, do so pri-
marily as custodians of the cargo
and not as seamen.
Specifically classified as seamen
were sailors, engineers. radio opera
tors, flremen, pursers. surgeons,
cooks and stewards.
Counsel for the Smoot corpora
ton objected to non classification
of operators of dredges and other
floating equipment in the COM
pany's river work They pointed to
United States Supreme Court de-
cision in the Ellis case in 1912. At
that time the Government prose-
cuted contractors who employed
men on a dredging project in Bos-
ton Bay for more than eight hours
a day. This, the prosecution con-
tended, violated a. law passed several
years earlier limiting individual
hours of work on Government
projects to eight hours a day. The
defense maintained that the dredge-
d. men should be classed% as seamen
and not as laborers or mechanics,
and they. as seamen, they were not
subject to the law. The Supreme
Court, Smoot's attorneys pointed
out, upheld the defense view.
Leads to Concession.
1t was presentation OF this
"factual data" conciliators of the
Sn1oot strike said. that led to the
concession by Col. Philip B. Flem-
ing, Administrator of the Wage and
Hour Division. that the division
would consider the operators Of
dredges and other floating equip
ment of the Smoot corporation as
seamen and. therefore, as not SUBJ
iect to the 42-hour law. Col. Flem-
ing stressed that his decision was
purely an administrative interpreta-
ton subject to review by the courts,
that "the solicitors Office has ex-
pressed the view that those men
probably are not seamen under the
| statute"
Under Wage and Hour Division
1nterpretative Bulletin No. II,
temporary or skeleton crews hired
to maintain vessel in port so the
regular crew may be granted short
leave would not be considered sea-
men. Neither would watchmen or
men similarly employed aboard a
vessel by independent contractors
IN port regardless of time employed.
In the amended Social Security
Act. all employees performing serv-
ices on and in connection with the
vessel" (any registered vesseD are
exempt from employees and en-
ployers' taxes. 1t specifically ex-
empts concessionaires.
Also, the amended Social Security
Act, Officers and members of the
crew" exempt from the tax in
clude every individual subject to his
(the captain's) authority. serving on
board and contributing in any way
to the operation and welfare of the
vessel" Among these are listed the
mates, pilots, 'pursers, surgeons,
stewards, engineers, firemen, cooks,
clerks, carpenters, deck hands, por-
tiers and chambermaids."
Both the Social Security Act and
the Labor Standards Act exempt
employees engaged on vessels used in
many sea food and fishery indus
tries.
Doubtless, there are other speci-
flcations Of the term seaman" in
law. On the other hand, one nigh.
proceed with brief assertion such
as will be found at the top of page
II of Regulations LOG, relating to
the Employees Tax and the Employ
| erS' Tax Under the Federal fras,lr-