ETF and ECSA announced the final report of the EU-wide project MapMar. Based on the outcomes of this final report, ETF and ECSA are better prepared to explain the requirements for any EU-wide data collection system to foresee the needs of the workforce.
The EU funded MapMar project was implemented by ETF and ECSA during the pandemic that exposed the need for reliable, comparable and accurate data and benefited of the expertise of Solent University and “Seafarers International Research Centre” (SIRC), from Cardiff University.
The aim of the project was to examine how to improve the way data is collected on employment of maritime professionals and to offer concrete recommendations on how to build an adequate data collection system.
The study identified and explored 93 data sources across 30 countries. These fell into three main types:
- Systems holding details of seafarer certification.
- Broader systems intended to collect employment data across a range of sectors.
- Social security systems which administer income, disability and retirement benefits and some tax contributions.
Strategic planning and policy development require robust data that are comparable across countries and over time
The detailed review of these sources suggested a mixed and complex picture. Within each of the three types of data source, there is a wide range in terms of public accessibility, coverage, detail and specificity. However, each data source type is also limited, to a greater or lesser extent, in the degree to which it can contribute to a clear and accurate description of the maritime sector’s workforce. Broadly:
- Systems holding certification data collect a range of seafarer details but for the most part cannot distinguish whether a seafarer is active at sea or not.
- Employment based data sources rarely hold seafarer specific data.
- Social security systems that are specific to seafarers often hold relevant data, but these arrangements are not universal across Member States, hold particularly sensitive data, and may not cover all national seafarers.
Conclusions
#1 Strategic planning and policy development require robust data that are comparable across countries and over time. The rapid pace of change withinthe maritime sector also makes it particularly important that such data are as current as possible.
Our findings indicate that certification data must be the foundation of any EU-wide system. They also suggest that an agreed set of consistently presented details on seafarers made publicly available by all administrations would allow the comparisons over time that are not currently possible
However, this dataset would have a remaining limitation: it would include all those with current certificates, whether or not seafarers were actively working at sea. This study suggests two possible approaches to addressing this limitation. First, an adjustment could be made to take account of the estimated number of such individuals within each administration’s dataset.
This adjustment would need to be made on a consistent, transparent and accurately reliable basis across the EU, and should be regularly reviewed to ensure it continued to reflect the current situation. Second, certificate details could be linked with tax or social security records, so giving an up-to-date and accurate indication of whether or not seafarers are actively working at sea.
#2 The report’s findings also suggest that a central role in the planning and development of any EUwide data collection system for the sector’s social partners, with key stakeholder support, would be key to ensuring both appropriateness, usefulness and sustainability.
In particular, their involvement would be fundamental to ensuring that the three underlying requirements for a fully functioning and effective system were achieved and maintained. These include agreement on: the definitions of ‘a seafarer’ and an ‘active’ seafarer; a key set of publicly available certificate details; and a methodological approach for adjusting or adding to these data so that they more accurately reflect those actively working at sea, as well as their consistent collation, aggregation and prompt, regular and full publication.
The Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted how rapidly the sector needs to be able to react to change and unexpected developments
#3 In addition, an on-going data collection system would be readily adaptable to meet other needs and to allow independent research. The Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted how rapidly the sector needs to be able to react to change and unexpected developments to protect the wellbeing and livelihoods of its workforce.
The findings described in this report provide the basis from which protocols might be developed for a system which would contribute to social partners’ strategic approaches and policies for the sector, leaving them better placed to respond decisively and appropriately to future developments, and even crises, within the industry
EXPLORE MORE ON ETF AND ECSA’S MAPMAR REPORT
