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Dissertation is an exploratory presentation of how the behavioural sciences (Social Psychology in particular) could be applied in maritime education and training towards developing a safety culture in the maritime industry.
Citations
... These factors taken together help explain why seafarers may underreport safety matters or be biased in their reporting of incidents to present a positive picture of themselves and/or the operations of the ship (Bhattacharya, 2012a;Xue et al., 2017). While the maritime industry may aspire to achieve organizational learning from incident reporting as one principle of building a safety culture (Manuel, 2011;Graham, 2008) the conditions described by this body of research on work at sea threaten such aspirations. Seafarers have often been found to feel stressed by communication with shore-based management (Sampson et al., 2016;Xue et al., 2017) and deal with this through withholding information, including making efforts to self-manage personal injuries rather than report them (Acejo et al., 2011). ...
This paper examines the background, development and implementation of global measures on the shipboard representation and consultation of workers on their health and safety. It is widely accepted that poor OSH outcomes at sea may be improved through management practices in which seafarers are able to participate effectively, as is done in health and safety in land-based industries. In land-based industries, OHS have been shown to benefit from the effective implementation and functioning of safety representation and consultation. The ILO Maritime Labour Convention 2006 (MLC) was developed as 'a firm response' to what the ILO described as a deficit in decent working conditions on board merchant ships and included provisions for such representation and consultation. This paper examines the development of these provisions and considers their potential in contributing to seafarers' health and safety protection. The paper draws on documentary analysis and interviews at the international, national and workplace levels with persons involved in the development of the MLC, its operationalization and administration and its implementation and practice. It finds that the MLC provisions for representation have not yet been implemented as envisaged and identifies factors associated with their development and with elements of the shipboard work environment that militate against their implementation and practice. As such, it argues that seafarers do not benefit from the potential of these regulatory measures to safeguard their OHS. The paper suggests that a rethinking of the measures on representation and consultation in the MLC may be required in order for shipping to reap their potential benefits.
... The EMSA (2016) shipping casualty report, for example, listed "human error" as the overarching cause of incidents at sea. Although in some cases this "human error" was attributed to supervisory decisions and some shore-based decisions, the majority of human error was Although the industry claimed to have adopted a socio-technical approach (Graham, 2008;Anderson, 2003), in essence, the focus was directed at correcting the behavioural flaws in the seafarers and their quality of training, with little attention paid to the structural conditions affecting seafarers' work practices, such as commercial pressures. 23 The sociology of work literature speaks to structures of vulnerability that impact how workers undertake their tasks which may include taking risks (Nichols, 1997). ...
... The potential for communication to positively influence OHSM practices by being transparent and open was not realized for the seafarers in those studies. Organizational learning from incident reporting is a principle of building a safety culture, to which the maritime industry aspires (Manuel, 2011;Graham, 2008). Nevertheless, poor communication arising from the conditions of work threatens such aspirations. ...
Global labour standards on representative participation in OHS on merchant ships. The thesis explores the viability of the International Labour Organization's Maritime Labour Convention 2006 provisions for seafarers 'safety representation. It examines the origins, development, administration and practice of these standards and interrogates their usefulness in helping to regulate health and safety on ships. The study found that representation was not practiced as envisaged in the MLC framework; that the conditions necessary to ensure effective representation were absent from the shipboard work environment; that the nature, organization and control of work onboard might be barriers to effective representation. These are attributed to a failure in ensuring a standard that was fit for purpose at the developmental level. The thesis suggests a revising of this standard and a consideration of a more appropriate model for representative participation.
This article assesses the regulatory steer provided by the Maritime Labour Convention 2006, against the research evidence as to what works in making for effective worker representation and consultation on occupational safety and health. Based on the testimony of seafarers and regulatory agencies, it demonstrates that the Maritime Labour Convention provisions lack the necessary elements for an effective regulatory steer. This is because the conditions shown to support this form of representation are absent from or underdeveloped in the shipboard work environment. The article concludes with some suggested ways to enhance the Convention’s provisions to
achieve a more positive effect for seafarers.
