Cargo ship. File Image / AI Generated

• SSI report: 88% of self-assessed companies score well on crewing, but only 49% of seafarers surveyed had enough crew to work safely
• Survey finds fewer than six in ten seafarers would feel safe raising a serious concern;
• Another cargo ship hit in Hormuz on Wednesday and IBIA's Edmund Hughes says no one would accept planes being routinely attacked, "but this is where we find ourselves today with ships"
• IUMI hands hull underwriters a crew wellbeing checklist covering fatigue, wages, abandonment, and crew change plans
• Report calls on charterers, insurers, and financiers to make welfare count in commercial decisions
• Hughes moderates the regulatory panel at the IBIA Annual Convention in New York, November 10-12

Seafarer welfare is getting worse on two fronts at once, with a five-year review finding that the standards shipping companies report for themselves are running well ahead of what crews say they experience, while ships and the people on them keep being attacked in the Strait of Hormuz.

The Sustainable Shipping Initiative (SSI) and five partners, including RightShip, the Mission to Seafarers, and the Institute for Human Rights and Business, published a progress report on Tuesday on the five years since the Delivering on Seafarers' Rights Code of Conduct was launched.

More than 1,000 companies covering 13,000 vessels and some 300,000 seafarers have assessed themselves against the code through RightShip's Crew Welfare Self-Assessment, and their scores are high: 90% attainment on fair terms of employment and 88% on crewing.

Set against a survey of 892 seafarers commissioned for the report, the picture changes.

Only 49% said there had been enough crew on board during their last contract to work safely without excessive fatigue or breaches of rest hours, 76% said their wages were always paid correctly and on time, and 59% said they would feel safe raising a serious concern without fear of consequences.

On mental health, 56% had free support available and would feel safe using it, 17% had it but would not use it, and 27% had no access at all.

The authors caution that the company data and the seafarer surveys are separate sets that cannot be matched company to company and are not presented as representative of the whole fleet, so the comparison is between the self-assessing companies and seafarers at large rather than a like-for-like test.

"The evidence from the last five years points in two directions. It shows that good welfare can be delivered but those standards are not yet part of daily life for many seafarers," said SSI chief executive Ellie Besley-Gould in an emailed press release.

The other front is physical.

On Wednesday another ship was hit and set on fire in the Strait of Hormuz, with two casualties reported, the latest in a series of attacks since the Iran war began in late February.

The attacks have reached the bunker industry directly, with the September 9 incident involving Peninsula's bunker tanker Hercules Star off Dubai having since claimed the lives of two of its crew,

IBIA condemned the attacks the following day, with its board calling on governments "to take decisive action to prevent further loss of life, protect freedom of navigation, safeguard global trade and uphold international law".

That more needs to be done is clear; the harder questions are what, and by whom.

Are Regulatory and Policy Changes the Answer?

Asked what the IMO, IBIA, and the other industry bodies can realistically do on the regulatory and policy side for a problem growing this fast, IBIA's representative to the IMO, Dr Edmund Hughes, told Ship & Bunker that the honest answer is to keep backing the IMO as the global regulator, both publicly and by engaging with the wider IMO membership, because its instruments are the agreed position of the whole shipping community.

He pointed to the resolution on protecting vital shipping lanes adopted by the IMO Council in July, which upholds navigational rights for commercial ships transiting straits used for international navigation.

"What is somewhat frustrating for industry when it comes to seafarer welfare is the contrast in the way international shipping is treated when compared to international aviation," he said.

"No one could imagine a scenario where planes are routinely targeted for attack and hijack but this is where we find ourselves today with ships, and specifically the poor seafarer, finding themselves the victim of this rather sorry state of affairs."

Hughes said the events in Hormuz have shown how tightly trade is tied to shipping, and that as the impact on national economies grows it may push governments to find a way through the impasse.

"We can only hope so," he said.

Others Moving

Where the policy side waits on governments, the commercial side is starting to act on the SSI report's central ask that charterers, insurers, and financiers make crew welfare visible in the decisions that decide which operators win business, secure cover, and access capital.

On Tuesday the International Union of Marine Insurance (IUMI) launched a Crew Wellbeing Checklist for hull and machinery underwriters, answered ashore by the broker or the assured's insurance manager.

It asks about a range of topics including the daily food allowance per crew member, the free internet data allowance, and whether any ship has appeared on the ILO/IMO abandonment database.

Whether wages were paid late in the past year, whether crew pay their own travel and visa costs, and whether there is a crew change contingency plan for a geopolitical event are other topics covered.

"Hull underwriters assess machinery, class, age, management and claims history. Yet the safety and performance of every vessel ultimately depend on its crew," said Ilias Tsakiris, CEO of the American Club (Europe) and chair of IUMI's Ocean Hull Committee, in a press release.

"At the same time, H&M underwriters should not become welfare inspectors. Instead, we should ask better questions about fatigue, retention, shore support, warlike voyages, repatriation and family communication."

The checklist accepts a completed RightShip or SSI self-assessment as supporting evidence, so the two initiatives feed each other, and P&I insurer NorthStandard joined SSI last month with the stated aim of making seafarer welfare visible in operational and commercial decisions.

The bunker industry has been slower, but there are some who are starting to do more.

As Ship & Bunker reported in July, Suzun Marine Fuels CEO Can Besev says his firm turns away about 2.3% of enquiries on seafarer welfare grounds using the same abandonment database and port state records that IUMI is now asking underwriters to check.

Ship & Bunker is aware of at least two other bunker suppliers that subsequently added seafarer welfare to their credit and compliance checks.

Hughes moderates the regulatory and policy panel at the IBIA Annual Convention in New York on November 10-12; for details, click here.