Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, numerous abuses of labour rights of seafarers have been reported within international community. Seafarers’ rights, stipulated in Maritime Labour Convention of 2006, were violated by bans on going ashore in harbours, as well as by abandonment by seafarers’ employers after the end of contracts, partly as a result of national lockdowns. The Convention, aimed at creating a comprehensive regulation on maritime labour issues, including medical care and health protection, proved to be insufficient to safeguard proper working conditions of seafarers. Consequently, it is necessary to evaluate implementation of the Convention in the period of pandemic, for the purpose of taking into account knowledge and best practice developed in this period in further amendments to the Convention.