---
title: "Panama Canal and deck officers reach new pay deal through 2033"
date: 2026-04-09
author: ""
url: https://panamadaily.news/panama-canal-pay-deal-deck-officers/
categories:
  - "Business"
  - "Economy"
  - "News"
tags:
  - "collective agreement"
  - "labor relations"
  - "Panama Canal"
  - "Ricaurte Vásquez"
  - "salary increase"
  - "UCOC"
---

# Panama Canal and deck officers reach new pay deal through 2033

## What Happened

The Panama Canal has signed a new collective bargaining agreement with the Union of Deck Captains and Officers (UCOC), setting out progressive salary increases through 2033. The deal establishes a 3.5% annual base wage increase, applied consecutively from 2027 through 2033.

The agreement was published Thursday, April 9, on the Panama Canal’s website and marks one of the most significant labor commitments in the canal’s recent negotiations with maritime personnel.

## Additional Pay Adjustments

The pact also updates the Special Additional Compensation and the Piloting Compensation. For workers in the Navigation Channel Maintenance Division, those benefits will rise by 2% annually from 2029 to 2033.

These adjustments add to the broader compensation structure for crews whose work supports the movement of vessels through one of the world’s most important shipping routes.

## Safety Measures and Working Conditions

Beyond pay, the agreement introduces a new rest requirement for tugboat captains involved in high-risk or highly complex operations. Under the deal, those employees will receive a 14-hour rest period, a measure aimed at reducing fatigue during critical tasks on the interoceanic waterway.

The canal’s administrator, Ricaurte Vásquez Morales, described the signing as a step that strengthens operational stability and the continuity of service. Tugboat captains and related crews play a central role in guiding vessels, operating tugboats and dredges, and supporting safe transit through the canal.

## Why It Matters

The new contract suggests a thaw in the relationship between the Panama Canal Authority and these workers after years of tension. The UCOC has about 200 members, including captains, deck officers and canal workers.

In 2024, the dispute escalated after the Supreme Court struck down the previous collective agreement and ordered the parties to negotiate a new one. The relationship also carried earlier friction, including a 2018 disagreement over an incident in the Neopanamax locks, when the administration and the captains offered different versions of what happened.

The new agreement now gives both sides a longer-term framework for wages and working conditions at a time when the canal remains strategically important for global trade and for Panama’s economy.