A cursory glance at the global seafarers demand and supply situation, or at least industry sentiment coming through, suggests that previously held fears over manpower shortages may now be a thing of the past. The 2015 BIMCO/ISF Manpower Study, published every five years, will make interesting reading, but at present, generally speaking ship owners can fill spaces onboard their ships. The problem lies with the quality of the people they are employing, and the cost and employment consequences that may involve. Competency is today’s industry catchword: get the right man, train him and retain him at all costs.

Simple enough! But when you factor in the shifting sands of vessel ownership and operation in today’s fiercely competitive market, then there is far more on the ship owner’s plate for him to deal with.

A recent survey by international accountant and shipping consultant Moore Stephens, put a lot of this into context when it predicted (actual costs are not yet available) that vessel operating costs would rise by more than 3% in both 2013 and 2014. Crew wages were expected to increase by 2.4% in 2013 and by 2.5% in 2014, with other crew costs thought likely to go up by 2.1% and 2.2% respectively for the years under review. The cost of P&I insurance is also expected to escalate by 2.4% in 2013 and by 2.5% in 2014, compared to the increases of 2% and 2.3% respectively predicted in respect of the cost of hull and machinery insurance.

The report went into more detail: “Crew costs, as always, emerged as a major concern for respondents, which is no surprise given the potential budgetary implications of the entry into force of MLC 2006 and the increasing involvement of both international and regional bodies in the oversight of crew competence and its effect on safety. Continuing the theme of previous surveys, fuel costs again featured prominently as a cause for concern, as did the cost of having to comply with increased regulation generally in the shipping industry. The latter, unfortunately, cannot be addressed by the expedient of applying new rules and regulations only to new ships, as suggested by one respondent. The regulators want a clean and safe shipping industry, and it is the industry itself, which includes a significant number of older vessels, that will have to underwrite the budget needed to achieve compliance.”

The shipping industry is continuing to feel the ravages of this ever tightening global financial crisis and it is unlikely to let up until there is a better balance between tonnage supply and tonnage demand.

With all this happening, the last thing the ship owner might want to worry about is the rights of his crew. As Deirdre Fitzpatrick, SRI Executive Director, said: “Any effort which seeks to promote the rights of a seafarer will almost certainly alienate certain ship owners. But when you put it into context, it is all about trying to say why delivering seafarers’ rights is a win-win situation for all. Yes, you can treat your crew badly but if you are running a ship on a tight budget in a stressed market, then the last thing you want is to lose skilled crew, and if you want to keep your crew then you have to observe their basic rights.”

“Many ship owners already consider that it is their responsibility to look after their crew beyond the letter of the law, but developing seafarers’ rights is also about empowering the seafarers to have some control over their own situation, and this starts with education. Informing seafarers about their rights and seeking an environment where seafarers can assert and enforce their rights without fear of victimization is the basic necessity for any sort of equality.”

This point was echoed by Brian Orrell, OBE, SRI Advisory Board Chairman. “What is needed is a programme of education and training that will not only inform seafarers of their rights and how to assert them, but also start to change attitudes among employers, persuading them that such seafarer awareness would actually result in better onboard working and living working conditions and quality operations.”

“There have always been good employers who know all this but unfortunately there are too many who don't, or do, but want to undercut the good by, among other things, suppressing seafarers’ rights”, he continued. “Finding ways to secure the involvement of the industry's good employers in programmes of education and training would be of considerable value. This represents a significant challenge but the initial initiative has to be taken, and SRI is well placed in this regard.”

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Source: Seafarers Right