WMU REPORT
RECOMMENDATIONS
THE RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE WMU
CULTURE OF ADJUSTMENT REPORT ARE
WIDE-RANGING, BUT ULTIMATELY SAFE
MANNING LEVELS ARE AT ITS CORE. IT
FOUND A NEED TO ALIGN THE REGULATORY
FRAMEWORK WITH OPERATIONAL CONDI-TIONS
AND FOR RELIABLE RESEARCH TO
BE UNDERTAKEN ON FATIGUE. THE STUDY
CALLED FOR A RE-EXAMINATION OF THE
THRESHOLDS SET OUT IN THE MARITIME
LABOUR CONVENTION (MLC), 2006,
AND THE STCW, AND OF THE
TWO-WATCH SYSTEM.
FINLANDS SJÖFART J SUOMEN MERENKULKU 37
Shipowners have mounted an extraordinary attack
on a recent World Maritime University (WMU)
report, which found that a systemic underreporting
of work and rest hours has normalised fatigue
among seafarers.
The ‘Culture of Adjustment’ report confirmed the
outcome of earlier studies and what many in the industry
already know, that the altering of records is commonplace
and there has been a failure by all stakeholders – seafar-ers,
shipowners, flag and port states – to address the issue.
Shipowners’ representative Dr Dirk Max Johns claimed
the report ‘accused seafarers, shipowners, flag states and
inspectors of being involved in systematic evasion, which
amounted to organised crime’.
He mounted the unexpected provocation at the Interna-tional
Labour Organization (ILO) Special Tripartite
Committee (STC) of the Maritime Labour Convention
(MLC), where he sought to discredit the research by
claiming it was ‘merely contract research’ and funded by a
trade union lobby group.
Dr Johns, who is the shipowner vice-chairperson of the
STC, targeted WMU president Dr Cleopatra Doumbia-Hen-ry
for promoting ‘wide-ranging allegations of normalised
deviance’ in reporting hours of work and rest, which he
said ‘were completely unfounded’.
He claimed that there were also serious issues regard-ing
the methodology used for the study, based on inter-views
and study groups. Stating that ‘researchers had
basically spoken to those who had paid for the research’.
The attack ignored the diversity of the interviewees. As
disclosed in the report, a total of 86 individuals partici-pated
in the research. The group of 20 seafarers represents
23% of the panel; port state control officers (PSCO) 24%;
and other stakeholders, including shipping companies and
trade organisations, 53%. Such a multi-stakeholder
approach allows researchers to multiply data sources,
enrich data sources, and cross-check information.
Ignoring this diversity of participants confirms an
established ‘culture of adjustment’ and shows a tendency
to neglect unpleasant feedback.
ALTERNATIVE FACTS
Dr Johns further claimed: ‘The starting point of the report
was the under-reporting of hours of work and rest, which
was assumed to be a fact.’
In fact, it was the International Shipping Federation
(ISF) and International Chamber of Shipping (ICS)
submission to STW/ISWG 2/8 in 2009 that called for proper
record keeping: ‘It will be more productive to adopt
amendments that will encourage proper record keeping
and help ensure enforcement of compliance with the
detailed rest-hour requirements (such as adequate provi-sion
of compensatory rest in any seven day period in which
the current “two-day” derogation rule is used). Changing
the regime itself will not ensure compliance and neither
will it prevent the inaccurate recording of hours of rest.’
Indeed, inaccurate recording of hours of rest has been
reported for the last 15 years in qualitative and quantita-tive
research. For example, quantitative evidence of large
underreporting is available in Allen et al 2006, which
established through a survey that ‘only about a third
(37.3%) of participants
do not under-record
their working hours’.
After a survey, Simkuva
et al 2016 concluded
that ‘only 31% say they
never breach recording
requirements’. Previous
quantitative research confirms
the prevalence of wrong reporting of
rest/work hours (62.7% to 69% of seafarers
declared underreporting rest/work hours).
Some casualty reports confirmed the WMU’s finding
when they investigated hours of rest in-depth. For exam-ple,
the US Coastguard (USCG) report of the Marine Board
of Investigation into the steamship
El Faro underlined fatigue, violation of standards,
methods to adjust records, and limited attention to rest
records in audits.
Additionally, the UK Marine Accident Investigation
Board (MAIB) casualty investigation report into the
Priscilla found hours of work and rest records suggested
that the ABs were keeping night watches as an additional
lookout when this was not the case.
FAILURE OF DIPLOMACY
Seafarer vice-chairperson and Nautilus general secretary
Mark Dickinson expressed shock at the reaction of the
shipowners’ group and said that although the International
Maritime Organization had established criteria for the
setting of minimum safe levels of manning, many flag
states ignored these. Following the most recent review of
the guidance. Not one flag state had increased safe
manning levels despite existing research pointing to the
need to do so. ‘Indeed, existing flag state regimes are
competing to set lower manning requirements,’ he said.
Research confirmed fatigue as a major causes of
accidents at sea. ‘Hours of work and rest must be ad-dressed
effectively. WMU should be applauded for the
study and for speaking truth to power.’
He reminded the committee that seafarers often worked
91 or 98 hours a week, with derogations permitted under
the STCW aggravating the situation.
The shipowner group was right to raise potential
criminalisation regarding the failure to keep adequate
records of hours of work and rest, he said, as there was
also a culture of the adjustment of records to avoid paying
seafarers overtime.
‘ITF inspectors collect US$30 million in unpaid wages
each year, one third of which is unpaid overtime hours or
unpaid hours of work. Such staggering levels of cheating
and criminality meant another appropriate title for the
WMU study could have been ”An Inconvenient Truth”.
Despite all the positive cooperation between stakeholders
in the industry over the past year in response to the
pandemic, there is still a tendency to sweep inconvenient
truths under the carpet. That cannot continue.
‘The ITF represents over one million seafarers and
every single ITF affiliated seafarer’s union attending the
STC meeting confirmed that the findings of the WMU
study were valid.’ •