Are Longshore and Harbor Workers Covered by Workers' Comp in Massachusetts?

Most dock, port and shipyard workers hurt on the job in Massachusetts are covered by a federal law, the Longshore and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act (33 U.S.C. sec. 901 and following), rather than only by the state workers’ compensation statute, M.G.L. c. 152. The federal Act covers a worker in maritime employment, such as a longshoreman, a harbor worker, a ship repairer or a shipbuilder, who is hurt on navigable water or on a pier, wharf, dry dock, terminal or other adjoining area used to load, unload, repair or build vessels. It pays two thirds of the worker’s average weekly wage, up to $2,163.92 a week for the year that began October 1, 2026, plus medical care from a doctor the worker chooses. Commercial fishermen and other crew members of a vessel are excluded from both the federal Act and the Massachusetts statute; their injury claims run under the federal Jones Act instead.

That difference matters most in the port cities. A dock worker unloading a ship in Fall River, a welder repairing a vessel in a shipyard and a deckhand on a scallop boat out of New Bedford can all be hurt on the same waterfront and end up under three different systems, with different benefits, different deadlines and different people to sue.

This page explains which workers the federal Act covers, what it pays compared with Massachusetts workers’ comp, how to report and claim, and where fishermen and other seamen fit. It is general information about the law, not legal advice about any particular injury.

Two Questions Decide Coverage: Where and What Job

The federal Act asks two things, and a worker must satisfy both.

Where the injury happened. Under 33 U.S.C. sec. 903(a), compensation is payable only for an injury “occurring upon the navigable waters of the United States (including any adjoining pier, wharf, dry dock, terminal, building way, marine railway, or other adjoining area customarily used by an employer in loading, unloading, repairing, dismantling, or building a vessel).” This is usually called the situs requirement. It reaches well onto land: a container yard or terminal next to the water can qualify, while a warehouse miles inland usually would not.

What the worker does. Under sec. 902(3), an employee is “any person engaged in maritime employment, including any longshoreman or other person engaged in longshoring operations, and any harbor-worker including a ship repairman, shipbuilder, and ship-breaker.” This is usually called the status requirement.

The same section then lists people who are not covered, even if they work by the water:

• people employed only for office clerical, secretarial, security or data processing work;
• people employed by a club, camp, recreational operation, restaurant, museum or retail outlet;
• marina employees who are not doing construction, replacement or expansion of the marina;
• employees of suppliers, transporters or vendors temporarily on the premises and not doing the employer’s covered work;
• aquaculture workers;
• people building recreational vessels under sixty-five feet, or repairing or dismantling recreational vessels;
• “a master or member of a crew of any vessel”; and
• people a master engages to load, unload or repair a small vessel under eighteen tons net.

There is an important condition attached. The first six groups are excluded only “if individuals described in clauses (A) through (F) are subject to coverage under a State workers’ compensation law.” A worker in one of those groups who has no state coverage is not left with nothing. Crew members, the seventh group, are excluded without that condition, because they have their own remedy.

What Massachusetts Workers’ Comp Says About Maritime Workers

The Massachusetts statute has its own maritime exceptions. M.G.L. c. 152, sec. 1(4) defines “employee” broadly but excepts “masters of and seamen on vessels engaged in interstate or foreign commerce,” and, separately, “persons employed by an employer engaged in interstate or foreign commerce but only so far as the laws of the United States provide for compensation or liability for their injury or death.”

Two points follow from the text:

1. Seamen are outside both systems. A crew member of a vessel in interstate or foreign commerce is excepted from c. 152 and from the federal Act. That person’s claim against the employer is under the Jones Act, discussed below.
2. Land-side maritime workers sit where the two laws overlap. In Sun Ship, Inc. v. Pennsylvania, 447 U.S. 715 (1980), the Supreme Court held that the 1972 extension of the federal Act onto land “supplements, rather than supplants, state compensation law,” so federal law does not stop a state from covering a land-side injury. Whether the Massachusetts statute itself reaches a particular worker turns on the “only so far as” wording in sec. 1(4) and on the facts, and this page does not answer that for any individual case. The federal Act anticipates overlap: under 33 U.S.C. sec. 903(e), any amount paid for the same injury under another workers’ compensation law or the Jones Act is credited against what the federal Act owes, so the same loss is not paid twice.

Longshore Act, Massachusetts Comp and the Jones Act Compared

Question	Longshore and Harbor Workers’ Act	Massachusetts c. 152	Jones Act (seamen)
Who it covers	Maritime workers injured on navigable water or an adjoining area used for vessels	Most Massachusetts employees; excepts seamen and, as far as federal law provides, some interstate commerce workers	A seaman injured in the course of employment
Fault	Not required	Not required	Employer negligence must be proved
Weekly pay for total disability	66 2/3% of average weekly wage (sec. 908(a), (b))	60% of average weekly wage (sec. 34)	No weekly benefit; a lawsuit for damages
Weekly maximum	$2,163.92 from October 1, 2026	$2,007.20 for injuries from October 1, 2026	Not applicable
Limit on temporary total benefits	Paid “during the continuance” of the disability	156 weeks under sec. 34	Not applicable
Choice of doctor	Worker chooses an authorized attending physician (sec. 907(b))	Worker may choose after any required first preferred-provider visit (sec. 30)	Not applicable
Notice to employer	Within 30 days (sec. 912(a))	As soon as practicable (sec. 41)	Not applicable
Deadline to claim or sue	One year from injury or last payment (sec. 913(a))	Four years from awareness of the work connection (sec. 41)	Three years (46 U.S.C. sec. 30106)
Jury	No	No	Yes (46 U.S.C. sec. 30104)

The rates in the table change every October 1. The federal maximum is set at 200 percent of the national average weekly wage under sec. 906(b), and the Massachusetts maximum at 100 percent of the state average weekly wage.

Answer Capsule

Most longshore, harbor and shipyard workers injured in Massachusetts are covered by the federal Longshore and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act if they were doing maritime work (33 U.S.C. sec. 902(3)) on navigable water or an adjoining pier, wharf, dry dock, terminal or other area used for vessels (sec. 903(a)). The Act pays 66 2/3 percent of the average weekly wage, with a maximum of $2,163.92 a week and a minimum of $540.98 for October 1, 2026 through September 30, 2027, plus medical care from a doctor the worker chooses. Notice is due within 30 days and a claim within one year. Crew members of a vessel, including commercial fishermen, are excluded from both the federal Act and M.G.L. c. 152 and bring claims under the Jones Act. This is general information, not legal advice.

What the Federal Act Pays

Disability pay. For total disability, temporary or permanent, the Act pays 66 2/3 percent of the worker’s average weekly wage, the pre-injury earnings figure the Act builds from the worker’s pay in the year before the injury under sec. 910. For partial disability that is not on the schedule, it pays two thirds of the difference between the old wage and what the worker can earn afterward (sec. 908(c)(21) and (e)), and temporary partial benefits stop after five years.

The maximum and minimum. Under sec. 906(b), weekly compensation cannot exceed 200 percent of the national average weekly wage, and compensation for total disability cannot be less than 50 percent of it unless the worker earned less than that before the injury. The U.S. Department of Labor’s table lists, for October 1, 2026 through September 30, 2027, a national average weekly wage of $1,081.96, a maximum of $2,163.92 and a minimum of $540.98. For the year before, the maximum was $2,082.70.

A simple example shows how the two systems compare. A worker who earned $1,500 a week and is totally disabled would receive $1,000 a week at 66 2/3 percent under the federal Act, and $900 a week at 60 percent under c. 152, sec. 34. A worker who earned $3,600 a week would reach both caps: $2,163.92 under the federal Act and $2,007.20 under Massachusetts law for an injury on or after October 1, 2026. These figures are arithmetic from the statutes and published rate tables, not a prediction for any claim.

Scheduled losses. Sec. 908(c) sets a number of weeks of compensation for the loss of a body part, for example 312 weeks for an arm, 288 for a leg and 244 for a hand, and also covers hearing loss, which matters on loud docks and in shipyards. For hearing loss, the deadlines do not start until the worker receives an audiogram and report showing the loss (sec. 908(c)(13)(D)).

Medical care. Under sec. 907, the employer must furnish medical, surgical and hospital care, medicine and apparatus “for such period as the nature of the injury or the process of recovery may require,” and the worker has the right to choose an attending physician authorized under the Act.

The waiting period. No compensation is paid for the first three days of disability, but if the disability lasts more than fourteen days, compensation is paid from the first day (sec. 906(a)). Medical care is not subject to the waiting period.

When payments start. The first installment is due on the fourteenth day after the employer is notified or learns of the injury (sec. 914(b)). An employer that disputes the claim must file a notice saying so by that fourteenth day (sec. 914(d)). An installment paid without an award that is more than fourteen days late carries an additional 10 percent unless the employer filed that notice or the delay is excused (sec. 914(e)).

Steps After a Dock or Shipyard Injury

1. Get medical care and tell the provider it happened at work. You have the right under sec. 907(b) to choose an authorized attending physician.
2. Give written notice within 30 days. Sec. 912(a) requires notice within thirty days of the injury, or of when you knew or should have known it was related to the job, to the employer and to the Department of Labor district office for the place of injury. The Department’s form is the LS-201, Notice of Employee’s Injury or Death. For an occupational disease that does not disable you right away, the notice period is one year from when you knew of the link.
3. Keep your pay records. The average weekly wage decides every weekly payment, and sec. 910 builds it from the year before the injury, including other employers in the same kind of work.
4. Watch the fourteenth day. If no payment and no notice of dispute arrives by the fourteenth day after your employer knew of the injury, sec. 914 is on your side.
5. File a claim within one year. Sec. 913(a) bars the claim unless it is filed within one year after the injury, or within one year of the last payment if the employer paid without an award. The Department’s form is the LS-203, Employee’s Claim for Compensation. For an occupational disease, it is two years from when you knew of the link (sec. 913(b)(2)).
6. Ask whether anyone other than your employer is responsible. A third party claim may exist alongside the compensation claim, as described next.

Suing the Employer, the Vessel or Someone Else

The employer. Under sec. 905(a), compensation is the employer’s exclusive liability to the injured worker, so a covered worker generally cannot sue the employer for negligence. The exception: if the employer failed to secure payment of compensation (for example by not carrying the required insurance), the worker may choose between claiming compensation and suing for damages, and the employer then cannot argue that the worker assumed the risk or was negligent.

The vessel. Under sec. 905(b), a covered worker injured by “the negligence of a vessel” may sue the vessel. The claim cannot be based on the warranty of seaworthiness, and two limits apply: a worker employed by the vessel to provide stevedoring services cannot sue for negligence by the people providing those services, and a shipbuilding or repair worker cannot sue an employer that also owns or operates the vessel.

Other parties. Under sec. 933(a), a worker who believes someone other than the employer is liable “need not elect” between compensation and that claim. Timing matters: if the worker accepts compensation under a formal award, the right to sue the third party passes to the employer unless the worker sues within six months after accepting it (sec. 933(b)). The employer then gets back what it paid out of any recovery.

Massachusetts law has a similar structure. Under M.G.L. c. 152, sec. 15, an injured worker can take state benefits and still sue a responsible third party, and the insurer is repaid from the recovery before the worker keeps the excess.

Commercial Fishermen and Other Seamen

Fishing crews working out of Massachusetts ports are the clearest example of workers who fall outside both comp systems. The federal Act excludes “a master or member of a crew of any vessel,” and c. 152 excepts “masters of and seamen on vessels engaged in interstate or foreign commerce.”

The remedy for a seaman is the Jones Act, 46 U.S.C. sec. 30104: “A seaman injured in the course of employment” may “bring a civil action at law, with the right of trial by jury, against the employer.” Unlike workers’ comp, a Jones Act claim requires showing the employer was negligent, and it is a lawsuit for damages rather than a weekly benefit set as a percentage of wages. The deadline under 46 U.S.C. sec. 30106 is three years after the cause of action arose. Whether a particular worker is a seaman depends on the worker’s connection to a vessel and is often the first fight in the case; this page does not set out that test. The boating accident page covers recreational boating claims, which follow different rules.

Key terms

• Longshore and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act: the federal no-fault compensation law for maritime workers injured on navigable water or adjoining areas used for vessels, 33 U.S.C. sec. 901 and following.
• Situs: the “where” requirement in sec. 903(a), navigable water or an adjoining pier, wharf, dry dock, terminal or similar area customarily used for vessels.
• Status: the “what job” requirement in sec. 902(3), maritime employment such as longshoring, harbor work, ship repair or shipbuilding.
• Average weekly wage: the pre-injury earnings figure every weekly payment is calculated from, built under sec. 910 from the worker’s pay in the year before the injury.
• Vessel negligence claim: a lawsuit under sec. 905(b) by a covered worker against a vessel whose negligence caused the injury, separate from compensation.
• Jones Act seaman: a crew member of a vessel who is excluded from workers’ comp and may sue the employer for negligence before a jury under 46 U.S.C. sec. 30104.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Does Massachusetts workers’ comp cover longshoremen?

A: Longshoremen injured in Massachusetts are usually covered by the federal Longshore and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act, which pays a higher percentage of wages, up to a higher weekly maximum, than the state statute. The Supreme Court held in Sun Ship, Inc. v. Pennsylvania (1980) that federal law does not stop a state from also covering a land-side injury, but M.G.L. c. 152, sec. 1(4) excepts some interstate commerce workers “only so far as” federal law provides for them, so whether a state claim is also available depends on the facts.

Q: Are commercial fishermen covered by workers’ comp in Massachusetts?

A: No. The federal Act excludes a master or member of a crew of any vessel, and M.G.L. c. 152, sec. 1(4) excepts masters of and seamen on vessels engaged in interstate or foreign commerce. A crew member injured at work generally brings a negligence claim against the employer under the Jones Act, 46 U.S.C. sec. 30104, within three years.

Q: How much does longshore workers’ comp pay in 2026?

A: Two thirds of the average weekly wage, subject to a maximum and minimum. For October 1, 2026 through September 30, 2027, the U.S. Department of Labor lists a maximum of $2,163.92 a week and a minimum of $540.98. For the year that ended September 30, 2026, the maximum was $2,082.70.

Q: How long do I have to report a longshore injury?

A: Written notice is due within 30 days of the injury, or of when you knew or should have known it was work related, under 33 U.S.C. sec. 912(a). The claim itself must be filed within one year under sec. 913(a). Occupational diseases have longer periods: one year for notice and two years for the claim, measured from when you knew of the link.

Q: Can I sue the ship owner if I was hurt unloading a ship?

A: Possibly. Under 33 U.S.C. sec. 905(b), a covered worker injured by the negligence of a vessel may sue the vessel while still receiving compensation. The claim must be based on negligence, not on the warranty of seaworthiness, and a stevedore cannot sue for negligence committed by the people providing the stevedoring services.

Q: Can I sue my own employer for a dock injury?

A: Usually not. Under 33 U.S.C. sec. 905(a), compensation is the employer’s exclusive liability. The exception is an employer that failed to secure payment of compensation; the injured worker may then choose to sue for damages instead.

Q: Are marina workers covered by the Longshore Act?

A: Generally not, unless they are doing construction, replacement or expansion of the marina. Sec. 902(3)(C) excludes other marina employees, but only if they are covered by a state workers’ compensation law. A marina worker in Massachusetts would usually look to M.G.L. c. 152.

Q: Is Jimmy Knows AI giving me legal advice?

A: No. This page is general information about Massachusetts and federal law for educational purposes. It is not legal advice for your situation and does not create an attorney-client relationship. For advice about your own case, call Jim Glaser Law at (617) JIM-WINS.

For Massachusetts workers’ comp generally, see is workers’ comp required in Massachusetts, how long workers’ comp lasts in Massachusetts, does workers’ comp cover medical bills and the Massachusetts statute of limitations for every claim. For local help, see workers’ compensation in Fall River and workers’ compensation in New Bedford.

Talking to a Lawyer

On the Massachusetts waterfront, the first question after an injury is often not how much the claim is worth but which law applies, and the deadlines under the federal Act are shorter than under state comp. If you were hurt on a dock, in a shipyard or on a vessel, call Jim Glaser Law at (617) JIM-WINS. The line is answered 24 hours a day. The first telephone consultation is free. This page is general information about the law, not legal advice about your situation.