26.—(1) An employed seafarer may present a complaint to an employment tribunal that the seafarer’s employer—
(a)has refused to permit the exercise of any right that the seafarer has under regulation 15(1)(a) or (b) (entitlement to annual leave etc.); or
(b)has failed to pay the seafarer the whole or any part of any amount due to the seafarer under regulation 15(1)(a) or (b).
(2) An employment tribunal must not consider a complaint under this regulation unless it is presented—
(a)before the end of the complaint period; or
(b)within such further period as the tribunal considers reasonable in a case where it is satisfied that it was not reasonably practicable for the complaint to be presented before the end of the complaint period.
(3) Where an employment tribunal finds a complaint under paragraph (1)(a) to be well-founded, the tribunal—
(a)must make a declaration to that effect; and
(b)may make an award of compensation to be paid by the employer to the seafarer.
(4) The amount of the compensation is to be such amount as the tribunal considers just and equitable in all the circumstances having regard to—
(a)the employer’s default in refusing to permit the seafarer to exercise the seafarer’s right; and
(b)any loss sustained by the seafarer which is attributable to the matters complained of.
(5) Where on complaint under paragraph (1)(b) an employment tribunal finds that an employer has failed to pay a seafarer in accordance with regulation 15(1)(a) or (b), it must order the employer to pay the seafarer the amount which it finds to be due to the seafarer.
(6) The “complaint period” is the period of three months beginning with the date on which it is alleged that the exercise of the right should have been permitted (or in the case of a period of annual leave or additional leave extending over more than one day, the date on which it should have been permitted to begin) or, as the case may be, the payment should have been made.