Table Of ContentLives in Peril
Also by David Walters
WORKER REPRESENTATION ON HEALTH AND SAFETY IN EUROPE (with Alan
Dalton and David Gee)
THE IDENTIFICATION AND ASSESSMENT OF OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND
SAFETY STRATEGIES IN EUROPE
REGULATING HEALTH AND SAFETY AT WORK: The Way Forward (with
Phil James)
HEALTH AND SAFETY IN SMALL ENTERPRISES
REGULATING HEALTH AND SAFETY MANAGEMENT IN THE EUROPEAN
UNION
WORKING SAFELY IN SMALL ENTERPRISES IN EUROPE
REGULATING HEALTH AND SAFETY AT WORK: An Agenda for Change?
(with Phil James)
BEYOND LIMITS? Dealing with Chemical Risks at Work in Europe (with Karola
Grodzki)
WORKER REPRESENTATION AND WORKPLACE HEALTH AND SAFETY (with
Theo Nichols)
SUPPORTING HEALTH AT WORK: International Perspectives on Occupational
Health Services (with Peter Westerholm)
WITHIN REACH? Managing Chemical Risks in Small Enterprises
WORKPLACE HEALTH AND SAFETY: International Perspectives on Worker
Representation (with Theo Nichols)
REGULATING WORKPLACE RISKS: A Comparative Study of Inspection Regimes
in Times of Change (with Richard Johnstone, Kaj Fick, Michael Quinlan, Geneviève
Baril-Gingras and Annie Thébaud-Mony)
SAFETY OR PROFIT? International Studies in Governance, Change and the
Work Environment (with Theo Nichols)
Lives in Peril
Profit or Safety in the Global
Maritime Industry?
David Walters
Cardiff Work Environment Research Centre, School of Social Sciences,
Cardiff University, UK
and
Nick Bailey
School of Social Sciences, Cardiff University, UK
© David Walters and Nick Bailey 2013
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2013 978-0-230-57383-3
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First published 2013 by
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ISBN 978-1-349-36483-1 ISBN 978-1-137-35729-8 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9781137357298
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Contents
List of Tables and Figures vii
Acknowledgements viii
List of Acronyms and Abbreviations x
Introduction: The Health, Safety and Well-Being of
Seafarers – Understanding the Challenges 1
Part I The Hazards of Work at Sea
1 A Picture of Health? Evidence of Mortality and Morbidity
among Merchant Seafarers 17
2 The Hazards of Work in Merchant Shipping 43
Part II The Structure and Operation of the Maritime
Industry and Its Approach to Regulating the Work
Environment
3 The Structure and Organisation of the Maritime Industry 71
4 Regulatory Features of the Maritime Industry 98
5 Managing Health and Safety at Sea (1) 129
Part III Understanding Vulnerability in a Globalised
Industry
6 Managing Health and Safety at Sea (2): Limits to the
Conventional Approach 151
7 The Role of Organised Labour 167
v
vi Contents
8 Governance and Regulation: Drivers and Leverage in
Support of Improved Management of Health and Safety at
Sea 187
9 Conclusions 216
Notes 235
References 239
Index 260
Tables and Figures
Figures
4.1 Tanker supply chain schematic 123
8.1 Container supply chain schematic 209
Tables
1.1 Incidents of piracy and its effects on crew 2007–2011 34
2.1 Changes in seafarers’ views of the relative importance of
different kinds of port-based welfare services 60
3.1 Origins of seafarers 86
3.2 Beneficial ownership of the international merchant fleet 87
3.3 Rank order of worlds fleet on basis of nationality and
deadweight 87
3.4 Comparison of voyage and leave rates (2009) for junior
officers employed aboard tankers 95
vii
Acknowledgements
This book has been in gestation for a long time. It originated in
discussions between us when we were both conducting our own research
and supervising postgraduate studies on the maritime industry at the
Seafarers International Research Centre (SIRC), Cardiff University, UK.
Our thinking then was further informed by lively discourse with col-
leagues and students at SIRC for which we are very grateful. We thank
Dr Syamantak Bhattacharya and Dr Conghua Xue for important insights
from their own research, as well as the Director of SIRC, Professor Helen
Sampson, whose support for this project in its early stages helped to
get it underway, who shared some of the later field research on which
the book is based and who, in the course of the time in which we were
writing the book, continued to share valuable insights into the working
of the maritime industry. We are also, of course, grateful to all our col-
leagues and students at SIRC as well as to those at the Cardiff School
of Social Sciences and the Cardiff Work Environment Research Centre,
who also contributed useful advice and tolerated our distraction from
time to time as the book has taken shape.
Several opportunities to undertake field research in the maritime
industry have been available to us during the writing of the book, and
the experiences thus gained informmany of the reflections in this book.
We are extremely grateful to all those who made this possible. They
include the personnel of the shipping companies whose support and
goodwill enabled us to undertake sea voyages on the ships they oper-
ated and managed and to observe and interview seafarers while they
were at work.
Central to our interest have been the experiences of seafarers them-
selves, and we are therefore grateful to all those who gave up rest times,
while on board and ashore, to talk to us and who were always thought-
ful and patient in sharing their experiences with us. In addition, many
regulatory inspectors, marine surveyors, superintendents, trade union
officials, company managers and others with a professional or commer-
cial interest in shipping also shared their experiences with us and helped
us with data that has informed the analysis adopted in this book. While
requirements of anonymity prevent the specific acknowledgement of
viii
Acknowledgements ix
individuals, we would like to make it clear that we are enormously
grateful for the help of all these people.
In writing this book, we have drawn on findings from several funded
research projects, and we are pleased to acknowledge help from the
organisations that supported this research. They include the Institu-
tion for Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH), The Lloyds Register
Educational Trust and the International Transport Workers Federation.
We especially thank Vicky Parkin for her invaluable help in prepar-
ing the manuscript and in the presentation of the tables and figures
included in the book.
While acknowledging the help we have received from all these
sources, responsibility for the content and views expressed in this book
as well as any inaccuracies or misrepresentations therein remains that of
the authors.
