Page 12: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (October 2004)

Government Update

Regulation 14 of Chapter V, that con- tracting governments "undertake, each for its national ships, to maintain, or, if it is necessary, to adopt, measures for the purpose of ensuring that, from the point of view of safety of life at sea, all ships shall be sufficiently and efficiently manned."

Expanding on this general injunction. the Assembly of the International

Maritime Organization (IMO) adopted

Principles of Safe Manning. These

Principles provide, in part, that, in deter- mining the minimum safe manning level of a ship, the ability to maintain safe watches and operations and respond to various emergency situations shall be considered. Administrations should also take proper account of requirements dealing with, among other things, hours of work or rest. Every company is obli- gated by the Principles to ensure that shipboard personnel do not work more hours than is safe in relation to the per- formance of their duties and the safety of the ship. The International Safety

Management (ISM) Code states that the 12

Circle 263 on Reader Service Card company operating the ship is responsi- ble for ensuring that adequate resources are provided to meet the requirements of the ship's safety management program.

The International Convention on

Standards of Training, Certification and

Watchkeeping for Seafarers (STCW

Convention) provides more specific guidance in this regard. It states, in sec- tion A-VIII/1 of the Code, that all per- sons who are assigned duty as watch- standers "shall be provided a minimum of 10 hours of rest in any 24-hour peri- od." Part B of the STCW Code, forming recommended guidance, includes a sec- tion of prevention of fatigue and notes that excessive or unreasonable overall working hours are not to be undertaken.

It is also suggested that Administrations adopt requirements for recording hours of work and hours of rest for seafarers and review their provisions on preven- tion of fatigue. In 2001, the IMO

Maritime Safety Committee issued a

Circular providing detailed guidance on fatigue mitigation and management.

U.S. law previously prohibited owners from requiring seafarers to work more than a certain number of hours each day, but did not prevent a seafarer from 'vol- unteering' to work additional hours. In recent years, provisions have been added to prohibit owners of many ships from permitting seafarers from work more than a certain number of hours (e.g., 15 hours in any 24-hour period or more than 36 hours in any 72-hour peri- od) except in an emergency when life or property are endangered. The officer in charge of a deck watch on a U.S. vessel when leaving port must have been off duty for at least 6 hours within the immediately preceding 12 hours.

For a variety of reasons, including competitive pressures among carriers and among seafarers, these injunctions have not proven fully effective. Marine casualties continue to be caused by sea- farer fatigue.

The National Transportation Safety

Board (NTSB), among others, has eval- uated the problem and made various rec- ommendations. It has recommended that a coordinated research program be undertaken on the effects of fatigue, sleepiness, sleep disorders, and circadi- an factors on transportation system safe- ty. It recommended that educational material for transportation industry per- sonnel and management be developed regarding shift work, work and rest schedules, and proper regimens of health, diet, and rest. The NTSB also recommended that a review be under- taken of regulations governing hours of service for transportation industry per- sonnel and that they incorporate the lat-

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