Early last year I was destined  to  join one of the largest  publicly traded tanker company in the world. I must say  I am a neophyte in a shipping industry.  Here, I had  the opportunity  to access the crew payroll in detail and compared it against the payslip of an  ordinary private employee.   I must say  that indeed,   being  a “seaman”  is quite a lucrative job.  They truly deserved such,  because aside from the risk associated with their work  being  with your love ones  is for me - priceless.  Well- paid as it shows, I stumbled on one benefit  that  an ordinary private employee is availing but is absent  for seamen.  This  is the  Retirement /Pension Benefit,  wherein  an employer  provides   a lump sum benefit payment to employee upon retirement.   I believe this idea is  somewhat  raw and  still need  further research, if why  seaman are not given such benefit.  But why can’t they have it, like other working employees? IPM