Modern slavery and human trafficking present an inherent risk to workers engaged in operations surrounding shipping activities. One of the first statutes addressing the problem was the UK Modern Slavery Act [MSA], which presents several statutory sanctions for shipping companies in case of non-compliance. The article examines the sanctions available under different provisions of MSA as applied specifically to shipping activities.
As a further step, the article conducts an empirical analysis of the reporting practices of liner shipping operators, eligible for compliance under MSA. In addition to the rates of compliance, it engages in content analysis of the modern slavery statements, seeking to identify the uniform patterns of reporting and industry best practices.
The last part of the article discusses whether corporate undertakings as reported in modern slavery statements may serve as a ground for tort liability, similarly to the supply chain or ‘production liability’ emerging from group policies and codes of conduct.
I december 2019 kommer fiskeriminister Mogens Jensen hjem fra Rådsmøde - de årlige kvoteforhandlinger
for 2020 i Bruxelles - med den besked, at jomfruhummerfiskeriet i Kattegat i fremtiden vil blive underlagt
kameraovervågning for forventeligt at nedbringe bifangst af torsk i dette fiskeri. Torskebestanden i Kattegat
er yderst presset og den generelle kvote er sat til nul. En mindre bifangstkvote på torsk blev således betinget
af denne overvågning, så man kan monitere torskefangsterne og sikre mod et udsmid af mindre torsk i fiskeriet,
en praksis, som myndighederne forudsatte yderligere ville forværre tilstanden i torskebestanden. Denne sidste
kausalsammenhæng er dog tvivlsom.
Torsk er således blevet en ”stop-art” for jomfruhummerfiskeriet og myndighedernes argumentation er, at
alternativet til kameraovervågning er et stop for jomfruhummerfiskeriet i Kattegat, da det ikke kan opretholdes
uden en bifangstkvote af torsk (Bilag 5). Udkommet af forhandlingerne kender vi, men det har ikke været
muligt at få yderligere indblik i selve forhandlingsprocessen; Havde de danske forhandlere alternative
positioner at falde tilbage på? Havde den danske delegation en forventning til reaktionerne i den danske
fiskerisektor? Var forhandlerne indstillet på at lukke jomfruhummerfiskeriet i Kattegat (proportionalitet)? Det
får vi muligvis aldrig indsigt i.
Solid-state lithium battery (SSLB) is considered as the most potential energy storage device in the next generation energy system due to its excellent safety performance. However, there are still intimidating safety issues for the SSLB, due to it being still in the development stage. This paper gives an overview of the safety of SSLBs. First, advanced solid-state battery techniques are introduced. Second, the safety issues of SSLBs are discussed. Then, the safety enhancement techniques are provided. Finally, future research opportunities are presented. This paper aims to provide a reference for researchers in the fields of electronic and electrical engineering who want to make some efforts in SSLB safety.
Autonomous marine surface vehicles rely on computer systems with computer intelligence making decisions to assist or replace the navigating officer. A fundamental requirement for the design and implementation of such a cyber-physical system is seamless, predictable, and secure interoperability between vendor-specific hardware and software subsystems. The article describes a system design that includes mechanisms to mitigate the risks and consequences of software defects, individual component malfunction, and harmful cyber interference. It addresses international regulations in the field and demonstrates a system design that can meet the requirements for safe behaviour in foreseeable events while also having the ability to call for human assistance if the autonomous system is unable to handle a situation. The paper presents a design for highly automated vessels with several inherent risk-reducing features, including the ability to isolate and encapsulate abnormal behaviours, built-in features to support resilience to unexpected events, and mechanisms for internal defence against cyber-attacks. The article shows how this is provided by a novel middleware that supports risk mitigation, dependability, and resilience.
Background:
The third edition of the International Medical Guide for Ships (IMGS) was published in 2007 and supported a main principle of the newly adopted International Maritime Labour Convention (MLC) 2006: to ensure that seafarers are given health protection and medical care as comparable as possible to that which is available to workers ashore. In 2021, the revisions and drafting of the fourth edition of the IMGS began. Taking the COVID-19 pandemic into consideration, it was decided that a stakeholder study was necessary to ascertain the usefulness and practicality of the guide as well as provide input for which new topics to include.
Materials and methods:
The study applied data triangulation, with respondents from a geographically
broad sample of the International Maritime Organization‘s five regional areas of the world. The data was analysed using thematic analysis.
Results:
The results show that the IMGS is widely known and used among persons involved in medical care on board ships, but the IMGS is not as practical as stakeholders would wish it to be. For the guide to be useful, it must be ensured that telemedical advice information is included and if possible, ensure there is one single and global medical guide. Also, there is a need for new medical information, and respondents pointed to pandemic information, medicines list, medical chest, mental health issues, a women’s section, updated cardiopulmonary resuscitation instructions, human immune defect virus information (human immune defect-virus) and information on how seafarers may self-monitor and be monitored on board in relation to chronic diseases.
Conclusions:
Respondents understand a medicine chest on board is mandatory according to the MLC 2006, 98% are familiar with its content, and 86% use the IMGS.
This chapter is about emergent safety hazards in engineering systems. These
hazards are those that emerge from a system without arising from any part of the
system alone, but because of interactions between parts. We distinguish two
approaches to analysing engineering systems: one is to view them as sociotechnical, and the other is to consider them as cyber-physical systems. We
illustrate a great deal of emergent hazardous behaviours and phenomena due to
unknown accident physics, malign actions, chemistry, and biology and due to
deficiencies in managements and organisations. The method that follows the
socio-technical view consists in the representation of a system by sequential
functionally unrelated processes that can in reality influence the performance of each other via sneak paths. The method that follows the cyber-physical systems
view focuses on the analysis of control loops (feedback, feedforward, positive,
and negative) and, especially, interrelated loops. The chapter explores also the
realm of security threats due to malign actions that can trigger safety-threatening events. And finally it gives general guidance for avoiding and eliminating safety hazards when designing engineering systems.
The safety of people and cargo onboard is a key functionality of a commercial ship.
The health and well-being of seafarers and passengers is protected through an extensive set of technical specifications, standards and norms that govern the design and commissioning of all vessels.
They differ by ship type and size, while the specific services to be provided and the specific geographic regions to be served also play an important role in this respect.
The requirements are of national and international character and vary also with the classification society that will commission the ship. Thus in a broader sense, all competences related to ship design are related one way or another to maritime health.
Much of the design of ships is overseen by a naval architect or marine engineer. It is rare to have the involvement of a medical professional except in the cruise industry.
Purpose and tasks
To ensure that the design of a ship includes the requirements to protect the health and well being of seafarers. More specifically, to identify areas of intervention that go beyond the usual engineering curricula where, nonetheless, the safety dimension is embedded through international standardization.
Background: Limited access to medical care can be considered as an occupational risk of seafaring and it may predispose to developing community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) requiring hospital care. We sought to investigate the risk for CAP and other lower respiratory tract infections (LRTI) requiring hospital care among seafarers. We examined the length of hospital stay (LOS) as a proxy for severity of illness. Methods: The study population in this panel data analysis were all seafarers and a 20% random sample of economically active individuals aged 18–65 years who were residing in Denmark in 1997–2016, constituting more than 11 million person-years of follow-up. Annually-registered socio-demographic and work characteristics were linked to data on cause of hospital admissions. We used fixed-effects and zero-truncated Poisson regression to estimate the rate ratios of hospitalization for CAP and other LRTI, and compared LOS across the two populations. Results: The adjusted incident rate ratio (IRR) for CAP in seafarers compared to the economically active population was 1.42 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.15–1.77), whereas the IRR was 0.73 (95% CI: 0.38–1.42) for other LRTI. For LOS, the IRRs for CAP and other LRTI in seafarers were 1.08 (95% CI: 1.04–1.12) and 0.92 (95% CI: 0.83–1.01), respectively. Conclusions: Our findings indicate that seafaring was associated with an increased risk for CAP requiring hospital care. Limited access to health care may be an important contributing factor.
BACKGROUND: Fatigue is a recognised risk factor for safety in seafaring. While always dangerous, fatigue in ferry shipping is especially hazardous as it may jeopardise passengers' safety. To counteract fatigue, knowledge on its determinants is important. Little, however, is known on the influence from physical and psychosocial work environment factors within ferry shipping. The aim of the study was to investigate the association between work stress in terms of physical stressors, perceived job demands and job control and different dimensions of fatigue among ferry ship employees and to test whether a potential effect of work stress was mediated by sleep satisfaction. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The design was cross-sectional. 193 respondents answered to a self-administered questionnaire including standardised scales, i.e. the Swedish Occupational Fatigue Inventory and the Copenhagen Psychosocial Questionnaire for job demands and control. The association of risk factors with fatigue was determined using hierarchical multiple linear regression analyses. RESULTS: Physical work stressors were positively associated with only one of five fatigue subscales: lack of energy. Higher levels of demands were related to more lack of energy, lack of motivation, physical exertion and sleepiness, while more control was related to lesser lack of energy, lack of motivation and sleepiness. No demand-control interaction was found. Effects of demand and control were partly mediated by sleep satisfaction. CONCLUSIONS: Although limited by its cross-sectional design this study provides support for the independent relevance of demands and control for employee fatigue in ferry shipping and for a mediating role of sleep satisfaction.