Background
The Maritime Labour Convention, 2006 (MLC2006) entered into force in August 2013 and is a milestone for better working and living conditions (WLC) for seafarers. As of March 2020, 96 countries have ratified the MLC2006, covering more than 90% of the world’s shipping fleet. A system of port state control (PSC) allows ratifying countries to inspect any foreign ship arriving in their ports for compliance with the convention. It is intended as a second safety measure for the identification of substandard ships that sail all over the world. Nine regional agreements, so-called Memoranda of Understanding (MoU), have been signed to coordinate and standardize PSC inspections and to increase efficiency by sharing inspections and information. This paper uses public PSC statistics to evaluate the impact of the MLC2006.
Methods
A preliminary analysis using registered tonnage and MLC2006 ratification was conducted and seven MoU were selected for the analysis. The annual reports of these MoU have been viewed in September 2019. Numbers on annual inspections, deficiencies and detentions and in particular data for deficiencies related to living and working conditions and certificates and documents, have been extracted and analyzed for the years 2010 to 2017.
Results
Across the eight-year period analyzed, inspection numbers remained stable among all MoU authorities. Deficiencies overall and deficiencies related to WLC declined, indicating an improvement in conditions overall and an increased focus on seafarers’ conditions on board. After the MLC2006 entered into force, three MoU reported WLC-ratios above 14%, while the numbers didn’t rise above 10% in the other four authorities. Deficiencies related to certificates and documents did not rise significantly between 2010 and 2017. Two European MoU showed the highest ratios for deficiencies in both categories analyzed.
Conclusion
The analysis confirmed that an increasing attention is being paid to the inspection of working and living conditions, especially in European countries. However, a clear positive impact of the MLC2006 could not be determined from the PSC statistics in this analysis. A large variation still exists among the MoU, a fact that demands increased efforts for harmonization of PSC procedures.
Given the move toward automation, an increased focus on the liability for technical defects must be anticipated. This brings into play liability regimes that have traditionally been less used in the maritime area. One of these liability regimes is product liability. It is the purpose of this contribution to examine the implications of product liability rules in the maritime area, seen in light of the automation of ships.
ABSTRACT: Climate change provides for improved conditions for maritime navigation and results in increased activity in the Arctic. Those increased activities influence the safety at sea and risk of accidents. A disaster as the Costa Concordia incident would have far more serious consequences in Greenlandic waters than it had in Italy, therefore the question of prevention and disaster-preparedness is crucial. One approach to avoid risks is to create specific legislation. The legal system guiding safe navigation of cruise ships in/around Greenlandic waters is complex: the legal regime for navigation is set in different general and specific international, regional and national legal acts, partly non-binding, therefore issues of effectiveness arise. Safety is also influenced by practical issues, e.g. the lack of sufficient nautical charts for Greenlandic waters and “preparedness” at land to handle potential disasters, such as the SAR-system and preparedness of different actors, for example hospitals.
The power system of an all-electric ship (AES) establishes an independent microgrid using the distributed energy resources, energy storage devices, and power electronic converters. As a hybrid energy system (HES), the power system of an AES works as a unified system where each part can affect the reliability of the other parts. The systemic reliability centered maintenance (SRCM), which efficiently enhances the reliability and safety of the AES by identifying optimal maintenance tasks of the AES, is considered in this article to apply to the entire system. In order to calculate the reliability and optimal maintenance schedule, the Markov process and Enhanced JAYA (EJAYA) are utilized. A layer of protection analysis (LOPA), which is a risk management technique, is adopted to assess the safety of the system. A hybrid molten carbonate fuel cell, photovoltaic (PV), and lithium-ion battery are considered as energy sources of the AES. Based on two common standards, DNVGL-ST-0033 and DNVGL-ST-0373, the suggested maintenance planning method can be used in industrial applications. Eventually, in order to validate the proposed method, a model-in-the-loop real-time simulation using dSPACE is carried out. The obtained results show the applicability and efficiency of the proposed method for improving reliability and safety.
Maritime medicine deals with the health of seafarers, fishermen, and offshore employees and, more specifically, with their employment, working and living conditions, and their health and safety at sea. Maritime doctors should have the appropriate training and competencies to provide the equivalent service as would be found on land. This review discusses a) the required skills and competencies of maritime doctors and b) explores the associated ongoing discussions for the establishment of a global accredited Masters programme in maritime health. A literature review was conducted using 2 databases: PubMed and Google scholar. Search terms included: maritime doctors, maritime medicine, occupational health, and skills and competencies. Literature published between 1990 and 2018 was prioritised. Thirty-five articles that discussed the skills, competencies, and education of maritime doctors and health professionals were retrieved, reviewed, and discussed, plus 8 reports and documents from relevant International Organisations webpages. We explored policies in relation to training using i) the health triangle and ii) the Kingdon model. Doctors who serve in the sector should have extensive knowledge about medical practice, but also about the environment of seafaring. The complexity of their roles, coupled with the provision of a high quality of services in global shipping, call for high quality accredited training and harmonisation of maritime health practices. The analysis of policy, using 2 policy models, showed that a window of opportunity appears to be in favour of a policy regarding the recognition of maritime medicine as a medical specialisation. International stakeholders, together with the International Maritime Health Association, should actively advocate such a perspective which will be in favour of seafarers, who will enjoy better health and wellbeing, with higher income while avoiding ill-health, as well as the shipping industry, which will employ satisfied and loyal employees, and will enjoy a higher reputation.
This paper describes the methodological aspects of calculation of incidence rates from incomplete data in occupational epidemiology. Proportionate measures in epidemiological studies are useful e.g. to describe the proportion of slips, trips and falls compared to other types of injury mechanisms within single age-strata. However, a comparison of proportions of slips, trips and falls among the different age-strata gives no meaning and can hamper the conclusions. Examples of a constructed example and some selected studies show how estimates of incidence rates can be calculated from the proportionate data by applying estimates of denominators available from other information. The calculated examples show how the risks based on the incidence rates in some cases differ from the risks based on the proportionate rates with the consequence of hampering the conclusions and the recommendations for prevention. In some cases the proportionate rates give good estimates of the incidence rates, but in other studies this might cause errors. It is recommended that estimates of the incidence rates should be used, where this is possible, by estimation of the size of the population. The paper is intended to be useful for students and teachers in epidemiology by using the attached Excel training file.
The maritime industry is a dangerous and highly technologicallysaturated sector. Unfortunately, advancement in automation and technologyhave not minimised human error as intended. Interaction between humansand technology in the industry is also overtly pre-scripted. The main reasonfor this is to reduce human error by ensuring predictability in interaction.Ultimately, investigations of non-routine interaction are often based on a hind-sight view of what went wrong in a given situation. This article analyses acollection of non-routine interactions that derive from a larger data corpus,using Discursive Psychology and Conversation Analysis. It argues that such astudy can capture what is missing from some investigations, namely, whatmakes sense for crews in the context of a given non-routine situation. Despitethe constraints and the challenges of technological complexity, this articleargues that reframing psychological matters in non-routine technologicallymediated interaction can be a new way of showing how such matters aredynamic, visible and manageable. This can inform the general debate of howto minimise human error, and more specifically, provide insight into the increas-ing inclusion of technology and as a consequence, the equally increasingamount of technologically mediated interaction that we will see in the future.
Background: Fatigue is a concern in ferry shipping as it has a negative impact on crew members health and plays a major role in marine incidents and accidents. Research within land-based occupational settings has found that work-family conflict is an important risk factor for fatigue and that support from leaders constitutes a possible resource with the potential to buffer a negative impact from work-family conflict. Though, the working conditions of ferry shipping are likely to interfere with employee's family life those two factors have received little attention in research on seafarers' health. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the direct associations between work-family conflict as well as leaders' support with fatigue in employees of the Danish ferry shipping industry. Further, the study aimed at testing whether support could buffer potential detrimental associations between work-family conflict and fatigue. Methods: The study design was cross-sectional, and 193 respondents answered to a self-administered questionnaire. Fatigue was measured with the Swedish Occupational Fatigue Inventory. Perceived work-family conflict and perceived supervisor support were assessed with two subscales from the Copenhagen Psychosocial Questionnaire. The association of potential risk factors with fatigue was determined using hierarchical multiple linear regression analyses. Results: After controlling for confounding, work-family conflict was found to be positively associated with four of the five subdimensions of fatigue; lack of energy, physical discomfort, lack of motivation and sleepiness, while more support from supervisors was related to less lack of energy, physical exhaustion and lack of motivation. Further, supervisor support was found to moderate the effect from work-family conflict on the physical subdimensions of fatigue. Conclusion: Although restricted by its cross-sectional design and a limited sample, this study provides support for the independent relevance of work family conflict and support from nearest superior for employee fatigue in ferry shipping. Further, there was evidence for a moderating role of such support on the negative impact of work-family conflict on the physical aspects of fatigue. Shipping companies may consider commencing initiatives which reduce conflicts between family life and work obligations, and that leader support may be a relevant component in such initiatives.
Objectives Characterisation of worker injuries on board merchant ships is modest. Using telemedical service contacts in Denmark, we describe the worker injuries patterns and factors related to injury incidence. Methods The data for this study were based on contacts (n=1401) from ships to Telemedical Assistance Service (TMAS) in Denmark in 2004–2014, which were supplemented with data on the annual estimation of all seafarers from the Danish Maritime Authority (n=73 336). The final data included information on broad age groups, occupation and nationality. The outcomes were injuries from any cause and six broad categories of injuries characterised by anatomic location or type of injury. Results During the observation period of 11 years, there were 1401 contacts to TMAS due to injuries, of which 36% were in upper limb, 18% in lower limb and 13% in the head. Age-adjusted incidence rates for all injuries varied between 13.6 and 26.8 incidences per 1000 person-years in 2004–2014. In most types of injuries, younger and older seafarers had higher risk for injuries than seafarers aged 30–49 years. Depending on the type of injury, non-officers had threefold to fivefold increased odds of injuries compared with officers, the risk being highest for head injuries with an OR of 5.00 (95% CI 3.19 to 7.83). Non-officers from the European Union (EU) had higher risk in most types of injuries than non-officers from outside the EU, whereas the pattern of this risk was inverse among officers. Conclusions These findings suggest that non-officers and European seafarers have an increased risk for several types of injuries on board Danish-flagged merchant ships. Additionally, age affected risk with the younger (<30 years) and older (>50 years) seafarers having increased risk.
This article analyses contractual governance practices within the value chains of large companies based in the USA and Europe between 2012 and 2017 with focus on human and labour rights. In line with the existing scholarship, we find that the use of contractual governance for safeguarding human and labour rights is best practice among large American and European businesses. The results show that value chain contractual governance should be studied in an interdisciplinary environment taking both legal and non-legal aspects into consideration. Moreover, we detect a general positive impact of the business and human rights regulatory wave of 2010–2011 on sustainable contractual governance practices.