Safety in the maritime industries

One only has to look at a picture of a shipyard, a ship’s engine room or an oil platform to appreciate that it is a potentially dangerous place to work. The density of the equipment per metre, the nature of the processes they are conducting, the materials they are handling and the environmental conditions all contribute to a work place that ranks with steel works, coal mines and deep sea fishing in dangerous work places.

Whilst they may have many common risks and conditions, they cannot be adequately addressed by a common set of safety regulations. Their needs are often specific to themselves alone. As a result they have to be addressed individually in many cases and rules, regulations and indeed authorities have their part to play in policing and maintaining the safety standards. These authorities include governmental health and safety organisations, classification societies and industry bodies.

Shipbuilding and ship repair

In many respects the shipbuilding and ship repair industries are the most risk laden from a health and safety point of view. Of the two, ship repair is arguably the more potentially dangerous by nature of the fact the ship has already been in service for a long period of time and is contaminated requiring ‘gas free’ procedures for tanks, pipelines and other confined spaces. At the same time there is the removal of previous paint treatments usually by blasting processes. By comparison shipbuilding because it uses new materials is clean, although anyone who has ever worked in a shipbuilding yard will agree that in reality it is anything but clean in the conventional sense. In 1974 the International Labour Organisation (ILO, formed in 1919) produced what was probably the first international paper on the subject when they presented ‘Safety and Health in Shipbuilding and Ship Repairing’. Since then with the development of the offshore energy industries and the requirements to meet the environmental issues many things have changed.

The Dutch approach

The situation in the Netherlands is particularly pertinent as the metal fabrication industry is the largest profit sector in the country. Some 2,750 large industrial size companies exist employing 260,000 staff, with an annual turnover of some € 85 million. To compliment this there are 13,000 small to medium enterprise companies employing 150,000 staff with a turnover of € 20 million. Until 2007 there were four levels of health and safety with the highest level being the Arbowet (Occupational Health & Safety Act). Unfortunately the complexities of the levels gave rise to contradictions in the various inspection and certification services which lead to governmental interference and high ‘regulatory pressure’ diluting the effectiveness of the health and safety legislation. In 2007 due argely to discontent voiced by companies in the metal sector a review ofthe Health and Safety Act was undertaken and as a result the Health and Safety Catalogue was introduced.

The principle of the catalogue is that the government still sets out the targets of the Health and Safety Act, but leaves the social partners in the relevant branch of the industry to draw up the policy rules and tools with which to meet the governmental targets. The requirements of the catalogue in each case are that the social partners all agree with the content of the catalogue; it must use recognised means and methods and this must be able to be demonstrated. The content and format are unregulated, giving the partners complete freedom and responsibility for it. The catalogue must be inspected by the Labour Inspectorate to ensure that it is completely consistent with laws and regulation.

A five times better catalogue

In December 2006 two employer associations in the metal working sector and three trade unions formed project ‘5xbeter’ to draw up and implement a catalogue for their sector. Four years later the project is considered to be a success and is scheduled to continue for two more years with the possibility of an extension being discussed. The projects aims were ”to improve the working conditions and thus the image of the metal working sector”. Targeting both the employers and the employees of the sector the tools and services of the project are available to any company covered by the collective agreement. The tools are based on the themes of welding fumes, noise, solvents, machine safety, physical workload and new employees, all of which are to be found in shipbuilding and repair. The website www.5xbeter.nl is the focal point of the project and the tools involved are digital health and safety checks, an improvements book, educational material and improvement coaching. Hilde Bussink, an improvement coach for 5xbeter says: ”The power ofthe project is in the fact that the improvement coaches are practical people with a wealth of experience, they can understand the issues a company might have. Moreover the project provides its services free of charge and takes a low profile approach to advising improvements.”

All at sea

The International Maritime Organisation (IMO) is a United Nations agency and is the global legislator for maritime affairs. It was founded in 1948 in Geneva as the Inter-Governmental Maritime Consultancy Organisation and became the IMO in 1982. Founded largely in response to the Titanic disaster its aim was ”to provide machinery for cooperation among governments in the field of governmental regulation and practices relating to technical matters of all kinds affecting shipping engaged in

international trade; to encourage and facilitate the general adoption of the highest practicable standards in matters concerning maritime safety, efficiency of navigation and prevention and control of marine pollution from ships”. The organisation is also empowered to deal with administrative and legal matters related to these purposes. Its first major achievement was the recognition of the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) charter in 1960. This was followed by MARPOL (marine pollution) convention in 1973 and GMDSS both of which contribute to the overall safety picture.

However, in 1978 the IMO introduced the Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping (STCW) convention. This was the first attempt to establish a common list of basic requirements on training, certification and watch-keeping at international level. Prior to this convention various governments had adopted their own standards and certification without reference to other countries. As a result standards and procedures varied widely, even though shipping is the most international of all industries.

Being a global entity it could not address the needs and requirements at national levels and this was especially significant in Europe, which is the worlds leading exporter and second biggest importer. In response to this need the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) was established in 2003. To ”provide technical support and advise to the European Commission and member states safety areas, and to monitor the ways in which different states and organizations are implementing EU legislation”. At national level the Netherlands has the Inspectie Leefomgeving en Transport (The Netherlands Shipping Inspectorate, ILENT), responsible for environment and transport. As such it is responsible for both the safety of those involved in the business of transport at sea and the items, which are, be transported with respect to environmental considerations. ILENT states: ”Merchant shipping is subject to national, as well as international and European regulations. The Schepenwet (Shipping Act, ed.) plays a central role in this respect. This legislation applies to all seagoing vessels flying the Dutch flag. It focuses on the safety of ships and their crews, their operations and their cargo. The Netherlands Shipping Inspectorate monitors vessels flying the Dutch flag, foreign vessels, crews, shipping companies and classification societies. Vessels flying a foreign flag are regulated in accordance with the Paris Memorandum of Understanding on Port State Control.”

The offshore industries

The requirements of the offshore energy industries of oil and gas and wind farms are different in some respects to conventional shipping, as stated above. Amongst these differences is of course the fact the environmental conditions they operate in, as they are to all intents and purposes unable to ‘run’ from a storm and the products they are handling (oil and natural gas) or in the case of wind turbines the products they are producing. To accommodate this, the industries have developed their own advisory bodies such as Offshore Petroleum Industry Training Organisation (OPITO) and in the Netherlands a dedicated voice can be found in the Netherlands Oil and Gas Exploration and Production Association (NOGEPA). NOGEPA represents the interests of its members, associates and society in general with respect to safety sustainability and green issues. OPITO have amongst other things introduced the International Minimum Industry Safety Training. This global standard ensures ”that workers have the necessary safety awareness and training to reduce risk and ultimately reduce the number of incidents”.

The winds of change

The offshore wind industry compared to the three sectors described above is a fledgling industry that is developing on an almost daily basis. As such it is perhaps not surprising that the industry globally is struggling to keep up in producing legislation specific to the unique requirements. The classification societies have been quick to produce standards for design that address health and safety in the design itself but operationally the unique requirements of transportation, transfer and operations are perhaps not quite so well constructed. Efforts are being made at international level to draw up regulations, which will be interpreted and adopted at national level in due course.

The offshore industries have their own advisory bodies regarding safety

Corporate Social Responsibility

Corporate Social Responsibility is one of those fashionable phrases that has been adopted in recent years and will be so for the foreseeable future. But what does it mean? Like most things in life there are differing definitions and interpretations subject to who you speak to, but probably the most useful definition and the one that seem to fit the European model best is provided by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development in its publication ‘Making Good Business Sense’ by Lord Holme and Richard Watts, who stated: ”Corporate Social Responsibility is the continuing commitment by business to behave ethically and contribute to economic development while improving the quality of life of the workforce and their families as well as of the local community and society at large.”

Andrew Rudgley