In the summertime the Rosella is often fully booked and the pace of work is high.

Soon after 12 o’clock Rosella leaves the quayside in Kapellskär in Norrtälje. The ship is fully booked and the crew have a couple of hectic hours ahead before they arrive in Mariehamn. But despite the stress that is often present, Bent Björn-Nielsen is very satisfied with the work environment activities that are carried out. One of the measures he especially appreciates is that the ship’s second mate has been given special responsibility for the work environment.
– It is more straightforward this way and you know exactly who to turn to with different questions. I personally wish that all ships had this system, he says.

The three mates who share safety duties have divided the tasks between themselves and each has overall responsibility for a certain area. Johan Backman, who is on service today, is in charge of safety.
– We have introduced this division of work so that no duties are left out, and so that others know who they can turn to with certain issues. If you have the main responsibility for an area you get to know it well, even though we also have shared responsibility for the whole working environment, he says.

Johan makes sure that all the lifebuoys and lifeboats are kept in good condition, and he leads exercises. He also organises the systematic work environment activities.
– We have produced a system for safety rounds and drawn up checklists. This job suits me well, I like it when things are organised and shipshape, he says.

Shop manager Kristoffer Harrison, chief safety officer Bent Björn-Nielsen and the safety mate Johan Backman are all involved in work environment activities on the Rosella.

Exemplary engagement
Last summer Viking Line created a post for a full-time chief safety officer who will help to coordinate work environment activities and operate as support for the crew. Bent Björn-Nielsen is responsible for Rosella, Cinderella and Xprs. He is often onboard to meet the personnel and Rosella describes him as exemplary.
– They are damned good here, he says. They often have their own ideas and they have the right attitude towards the work environment and safety.

One of the strongest driving forces on the Rosella is the captain, Kenneth Eriksson. He says that work environment is an issue that lies close to his heart, and his ambition is that it will become a natural part of the daily routines onboard.
– The work environment is not something to do when everything else is finished - it is what we should be starting with. A good work environment is the basis for making everything else work, he says.

Many of the work environment activities on the Rosella are about establishing procedures that function well and obtaining a structure which clearly indicates what must be done and when. The number of safety committee meetings has been doubled and they are now held every month. Any accidents that have affected the personnel are taken up at the meetings as well as any risks which have been noted in Viking Lines’ internal deviation reporting system. In conjunction with every meeting a safety round is carried out. Kenneth says that they have made a lot of progress in terms of creating procedures, but that there are many things which still need improving.
– Above all we need to get better at following up our work. We do our safety rounds and we find out what problems there are, but we must get better at ensuring what we decide actually gets done.

New risk assessments
A large ongoing project here on the Rosella, like on the other two ships which Bent works with, is risk assessment. When Bent started his post last year he went through the risk assessments which had been carried out. He noticed that there were a number of conclusions in them which did not seem realistic.
– In the machine room they had not found a single risk, while working on the cash till was assessed as level 4 on a five-grade scale. It was obviously wrong, he says.

Instead of starting to correct and re-write existing documents, it was decided that completely new risk assessments would be carried out on all ships. This time the work is more closely controlled, the personnel onboard have been given clear instructions on how the assessments are to be made, what they are looking for and how the risks are to be coded. A newly created working group with representatives from the ships will later go through everything to quality assure the assessments.
– If anything appears a little strange we will contact the department and ask them how they were thinking. This work should be completed by the new year, but it has also been decided that new risk assessments will be carried out prior to any rebuilding or new construction, says Bent.

He often comes onboard to meet the crew. It is then he notices how people feel and finds out if there is anything wrong.
– I have devoted a lot of time to conflict management, he explains. Things were not going well in one department and people were feeling bad, but nobody understood why. It turned out that the managers were having problems co-operating, but that is all solved now.

Most people on the Rosella seem to enjoy their work. The fact that the ship is relatively small means that most of the crew know each other and the team spirit compensates in many cases for what can often be tough work. Things are very hectic in the galley, people are rushing around and you can hear the crashing from the washing up all around you. Johanna Johansson rolls in a trolley with empty small dishes from the buffet.

Save your body
– It is quite hard going working in the galley, but I do think about how I carry and lift things. When I started here people told me to be careful with my back and showed me how to do the work, and I listened to their advice, she says.

In the buffet her colleague, Jelena Rautjärvi, is clearing off the tables. After 15 years in the profession she has learned how to take care of her body.
– I don’t carry more than I can manage, she says. Many others take too much, especially when things get stressed, but I never carry more than 12 plates at a time. That is quite heavy enough with leftovers and cutlery on top.

It is things like this which Bent and the ship management are striving for: that the personnel look after their own and their colleagues’ health and think about how the work affects them. The right conditions and equipment are also needed for the crew to be able to do their work safely.

Marika Holmberg works at the cash till in the tax-free shop. She is sitting on a basic office chair, without an adjustable cash till, and she thinks it is difficult to find a good working position.
– In terms of ergonomics it is not particularly good. The chair is difficult to angle and my shoulders and back are aching when I finish my shift. I hope that we will soon be given new things, she says.

Bent agrees that work at the cash tills is a problem. Repetitive movements wear parts of the body and without adjustable equipment it is almost impossible to find a healthy working position.
– They bought new cash tills for the Cinderella recently and I can guarantee that they will give the personnel problems in their shoulders and joints in the future. They chose to buy the same sort as on the other ships are as they were given a good price, but if they had looked at what they are like to work with they would probably have chosen a different model. People come in all shapes and sizes, he says.

Adapted ear protection
Another major project on the Rosella is to find ear protection that is adapted to each department. Personnel in the bar and nightclub have moulded models, while other variants are being tested for deckhands. In the machine room people say they are good at using the safety equipment that is provided. Second ship’s engineer Niklas Karlsson has worked for about a week at his current post.
– I always wear ear protectors, gloves and glasses. They are definitely necessary. Once, a drill bit broke off and flew up towards my eyes, and if I had not been wearing safety glasses I could have been badly hurt, he says.

Another area in which both Bent and the management of the Rosella are working on is to get more of the personnel involved in work environment activities onboard. As is so often the case, this is led by a small group of enthusiasts, but to achieve real results we need to get more people involved, he says. On the initiative of captain Eriksson, a list has been made of those interested in the work environment in each department to find people who are willing to work more with these issues. Minutes from safety committee meetings are no longer just put up on noticeboards, they are also made available in a plastic folder in the rest room for people to take with them to their cabins.
– This is a simple but damned good idea, says Bent, holding up the folder with the minutes in. You have to keep on informing people again and again, and in the end maybe they will wake up and become interested.

Linda Sundgren

After two weeks of training, safety officers have learned a lot of information about what the work environment law requires and how work onboard should be carried out safely. Good co-operation is also required between safety officers and the captain, though, if the work environment is to be changed and improved.
– Good leadership is the foundation of work environment activities. Without the support of the captain nothing gets any better, says Karl-Arne Johansson.

The captain needs to be sensitive to the crew’s ideas and interested in them having a good work environment, says Karl-Arne. But he also needs to know what a good work environment includes. A few shipping companies train their captains in work environment issues, but so far the subject has been given low priority at colleges and universities.
– Training is vital, and according to the law the captain is obliged to know what is stated in work environment legislation. But students reading to become sea captains are given hardly any training in these issues, and not everybody knows exactly what is required of them. It is obviously important, too, that people working with these issues in the shipping company’s offices ashore are aware of the situation so that they can support and help constructively.

SAN has developed a basic work environment training course for captains and key persons ashore. According to a proposal by the board, completion of the course will lead to a certificate that requires regular updating.
The proposal has been sent to the Swedish Transport Agency, the seafarers’ unions and the Shipowners’ Association for their information and comments.

Linda Sundgren

Photo: Tedd Juhlin

Crewmembers on some coastal tonnage and smaller ships sometimes jump ashore with the mooring line when docking.
– This is extremely dangerous and could end in a disaster, warns Mikael H Andersson, work environment official at the Swedish Transport Agency.

Sometimes there is no mooring guard and sometimes the shipping company does not want to pay extra for the service. Instead they let a crewmember jump ashore with a mooring line. This practice could lead to disaster.

The risk of injuries when landing on the quayside is always present, and if anybody falls in the water there is a great risk of being crushed between the quayside and the ship.
– I have worked on ships myself where we used to jump ashore, and every time we were afraid that something would happen. Sometimes you have a free board of a couple of metres when you come in to the wharf and somebody has to climb on the outside of the handrail, brace their feet against the ship and jump. It is definitely not a good practice, says Mikael H Andersson.

He says that it is mostly on small ships of less than 70 metres, exempted from pilots, that the decision is made not to have a mooring guard. As well as small tankers and dry loaders, this group of ships also includes different sorts of passenger vessels, including the boats that sail up and down the Göta canal in the summer as there are no mooring guards along the canal.
– There they have young boys and girls working as temporaries who do this sort of thing. I am afraid it is only a question of time before a serious accident happens, says Mikael H Andersson.

Linda Sundgren

In recent years, however, the concept of work environment has undergone a healthy development. The realisation has spread that it is about so much more than the issues focused on earlier; it is now widely accepted that the work environment encompasses people as a whole and how we feel. Food, exercise, sleep, harassment, alcohol habits, leadership and general well-being are some of the issues which now have gained their place in the framework of serious work environment activities.

This broadening of the issues reflects a more complete picture of real life and of those at the centre of the work environment process – the employees. It is also becoming increasingly apparent that the different parts, physical as well as psychosocial, are closely related to each other and together make up a whole.
Many studies have shown that people who feel bad psychologically, who are stressed or who eat poorly run greater risks than others of suffering not only from a number of illnesses, but also aches and injuries. Too much stress and dissatisfaction at work make people more susceptible, their immune defence is weakened and muscles and organs become more vulnerable to strains. On top of all this, the risk of accidents increases under high stress.

Working with the psychosocial environment is sometimes felt to be more difficult than dealing with physical conditions. It is often less tangible and not as clear. Nevertheless, projects are ongoing here and there which strive to raise the quality of conditions onboard for personnel. Just the fact that we now more often see the relationship between physical and psychosocial aspects, the parts and the whole, is in itself a significant step forwards.

Linda Sundgren
editor, San News

IMO’s headquarters in London. Photo: IMO

2010 has been declared the Year of Seafarer by the UN safety organ IMO (International Maritime Organization). Ashok Mahapatra, manager of the section for Maritime Education and human resource issues at the IMO headquarters in London, says that the main reason for this declaration is to direct attention to the world’s one and a half million seafarers and their work in daily trade.
– This is an excellent way for us to send a clear message to them. We want to show them that we who work with maritime issues on land understand the extreme pressure under which they work and that we see the sacrifices they make. But we also want to inform them about the work we are doing to create better conditions for them, he says.

Demand for safe new growth
The Year of Seafarer is also part of the campaign Go to Sea, which the IMO introduced in 2008 together with the ILO (International Labour Organization) and the International Transport Workers’ Federation to increase recruitment in the maritime industry. Securing new growth in the industry requires good working conditions and good conditions onboard, says Ashok Mahapatra, who is well aware that there is much left to do in this area.
– Seafarers must be given the support they need in times of accidents, when they are abandoned in harbours or when they sail into pirate-infested waters. Nor should they be prevented from going ashore by safety regulations when they stop in harbours. There are many things which can be improved, explains Ashok Mahapatra.

Some improvements will come about through the implementation of the IMO’s revised STCW convention, which is due to be ratified in Manila in June, Mahapatra believes. The ILO superconvention for seafarers that was adopted four years ago will also bring with it many advantages for the world’s seafarers when it comes into force.

Linda Sundgren

At the same time the mate changed over to filling some of the other tanks and, when these were full, switched back to filling the tanks in which the pressure alarm had sounded. He asked the seaman to close the manual valve on the tanks when loading was completed. Another alarm for high pressure sounded. The mate started to open the tanks which he had recently finished loading, but quickly realised that the manual valve had been closed, and so he closed the tanks. Once again he sent out the seaman to check the pressure relief valve. Again, the seaman reported that he saw hot vapour coming out.

Left: pipe without drain. Right : pipe with drain.

The mate assumed that he pressure sensor was not operating correctly, which he had experienced once before. Soon afterwards there was an explosion and violent shaking. As a result of hot oil rushing into the cold air it vaporised and the fire alarm was activated. The mate contacted the loading terminal ashore requesting that they stop loading and at the same time he closed all valves and manifolds. The starboard tank had exploded as a result of excess pressure. The bulkhead by the starboard tank buckled and ruptured, as did the tank top to the pipe tunnel and the tank top to the double bottom. When the explosion took place both tanks were 66% full.

One major course of this accident was ice formation in the air vent pipe. Since the ice was not completely sealed some of the gas could pass, which the seaman saw coming out of the pressure relief valve. The vent pipes should drain automatically, but did not. There were no injuries and no environmental damage, but eight tons of steel needed to be replaced.

During the winter at least one other tank exploded in a Swedish ship also due to ice formation in an S tube for ventilation. The Swedish Transport Agency recommends that all pipes are checked for sufficient draining.

SFu dnr 060502 TSS 2010-536

An investigation later showed that the diesel tank in question had been reconstructed a number of years ago. To obtain a larger capacity it was built together with an existing urea tank. However, the air venting system was not rebuilt and was therefore inadequate when refilling the tanks with diesel.

SFu dnr 060502 TSS 2010-890

Since the regulations are drawn up so that the different systems will operate together, we can state that this type of radar does not fulfil requirements. If it is desirable that a radar works with other systems, a traditional magnetron type should be used.

SFu/SFtt

The material damage was rather small. The injured man had been preparing for some painting work in the machine room, and had been cleaning the surfaces he was going to paint with solvent or diesel. Inflammable gases had spread and eventually an explosive mixture formed in the poorly ventilated room. This mixture was ignited when an electrical appliance was turned on, in this case a heater.
This underlines the need to be attentive to risks when carrying out what appears to be relatively risk-free work.

BSU 619/08

Insjö/ForeSea