Complete rethink needed on seafarers’ welfare, report suggests

19 June 2007

The maritime welfare community is facing a sea change in its operations as it adapts to meet the demands of a changing shipping industry, a report by SIRC (Seafarers’ International Research Centre) and commissioned by the ITF’s Seafarers’ Trust, says.

Entitled Port Based Welfare Services for Seafarers, the report can be downloaded at www.itfglobal.org/seafarers-trust/welfarerpt.cfm
To be launched at 12:30 tomorrow (Tuesday 19 June), it represents a year long research project which surveyed seafarers and ship operators worldwide to discover what they need from the Seafarers’ Trust and other concerned organisations.  Their answers indicate that, despite the unstinting and at times even heroic efforts of maritime welfare agencies, the services being provided are no longer meeting the needs of those at sea in the way they have in the past.

The research is based on 4,000 responses to a survey designed to mirror the sizes of the world fleet nationalities and ranks. It used a mix of focus groups, interviews and questionnaires to achieve an understanding of what, in particular, seafarers who weren’t using shore-based welfare facilities wanted.

It found that the port-based facilities that have been so painstakingly built up to help seafarers are now often being bypassed as a result of the degradation of social life at sea in the last decade. Seafarers may now work a whole contract term without ever seeing a welfare worker, simply because port calls do not allow them the time to visit onshore facilities.  It also pointed to a near complete absence in facilities offered by companies, many of whom have tended to rely on the agencies to look after the social needs of their employees. Once again, ship to shore communications emerged as one of the most mentioned concerns, with the majority of ratings still not allowed to use email when at sea - despite its existence on most vessels. The responses suggested that its exclusion was often an arbitrary decision made by the captain, and that access to email for all onboard would be one of the most significant changes that could be made to improve seafarers’ lives.

Tom Holmer, Secretary of the ITF’s Seafarers’ Trust, commented: “Dramatic though these results are, they will not come as a complete surprise to ourselves and our friends in the maritime welfare community, who are already planning ahead to meet this change. We have all suspected for some time that despite the magnificent efforts the agencies have made for so long, the services are no longer always getting through. The loss of shore leave, more than anything else, has brought us to a world where the accommodation and services offered in seafarers’ centres must now be supplemented by a raft of new types of support.”

He continued: “We commissioned this research to better guide how we can support seafarers’ welfare over the next decade, and it has highlighted the need for change. We will launch it today to a gathering of our colleagues and friends from the world’s seafarers’ welfare agencies, and I believe it will form a useful reference point for the discussions about where, together, we all go from here.”

ENDS

For more information contact ITF press officer, Sam Dawson.
Direct line: + 44 (0)20 7940 9260.
Email: dawson_sam@itf.org.uk

International Transport Workers' Federation - ITF:
HEAD OFFICE
ITF House, 49 - 60 Borough Road, London SE1 1DS
Tel: + 44 (0) 20 7403 2733
Fax: + 44 (0) 20 7375 7871
Email: mail@itf.org.uk
Web: www.itfglobal.org

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Welfare Report This report is based on the findings of a research project...

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