Bridge and boardroom divided on Day of the Seafarer

There were two distinct camps on shipping social media on Day of the Seafarer 2024, the first and most numerous were companies and well-wishers paying tribute to the individuals who enable world trade; the second, a clear minority, were seafarers calling for actions rather than words in improving conditions for themselves and their peers.

The IMO, international regulator for shipping and organiser of the annual UN observance Day of the Seafarer, shared its message to mark the day on LinkedIn and attracted the usual mix of enthusiastic agreement and opportunistic self promotion. Among those comments were appeals for help and faster progress in addressing long-running issues within the profession.

One seafarer responded that a single day of celebration contrasted with underappreciation and disrespect they felt throughout the rest of the year. The commenter came equipped with the facts - there were 132 cases of seafarer abandonment in 2023, according to the International Transport Workers Federation (ITF), and 37 open cases from 2024 so far.

The IMO and the International Labour Organization (ILO) have worked for decades closing loopholes for unscrupulous owners, ensuring seafarers can be repatriated as quickly as possible in abandonment cases, providing guidance to stakeholders and adopting new regulations, but problems clearly persist.

It is hard to gauge the prevalance of such opinions from social media as there may be career-limiting implications for any employee giving an honest appraisal of pay and conditions online, especially on LinkedIn. It would also be unfair to assume that a handful of posts reflect the individual experience and opinion of a global workfroce, many of whom choose to remain at sea or in maritime-related roles for their entire careers. However, the concerns raised on yesterday's company posts echo those we read every quarter in the Seafarers Happiness Index and that we know are still prevalent as an industry from the tide of companies, products, and company mission statements claiming to address those same issues in whole or in part.

While publicly active companies in the industry share their praise for seafarers, other actors within the industry are responsible for abandonment and the suffering it brings. Cutting ties to seafarers in distant ports is not a freak accident, it is a commercial decision (I recommend the Lloyd's List Day of the Seafarer editorial piece Fine sentiments are no defence to Houthi missiles for a look at the tension between commercial decisions and seafarer wellbeing). For any and all progress in enforcement and intervention in cases of abandonment, the oldest active case listed by the ITF still stretches back almost five years to October 2019.

Criminalisation of seafarers was another topic raised below the line, as crew remain easy scapegoats for accidents, pollution, and smuggling of illicit cargo. The grievances aired were not limited to such extreme events, however.

One marine surveyor took to ITF’s post to raise work and rest hours, safe working conditions, and wage theft as areas in need of addressing, stressing the need for more widespread enforcement of Maritime Labour Convention (MLC) across the industry.

Another active seafarer branded Day of the Seafarer a nonsense. Their main complaint was of increasing workloads and the psychological impact as rules and regulations add more tasks to daily duties at sea. Inspections in particular were a bone of contention as they recalled a back-breaking schedule of inspections for various authorities on one tour - six inspections each in six ports. At a time when SIRE is rolling out its new inspection regime to cover human factors, excessive inspections may themselves be limiting seafarer effectiveness.

The final point raised by a seafarer was that thanks may be available online for one day a year, but visas to go ashore during port stays and enjoy any downtime or take care of essential personal tasks are much harder to come by. Again, this is a topic raised every quarter by the Seafarers’ Happiness Index.

Day of the Seafarer is a worthwhile initiative, raising the profile of shipping and celebrating the importance of its workforce to a broad audience. There is room to reflect within shipping on relative value of annual declarations of thanks versus our individual and collective potential as people, companies and associations to bring about meaningful change for seafarers.

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The bridge and boardroom divide on Day of the Seafarer