The Norwegian Maritime Authority (NMA) has laid down amendments to the Regulations of 5 June 2014 No. 805 on the medical examination of employees on Norwegian ships and mobile offshore units to ensure satisfactory implementation of the General Data Protection Regulation.
In particular, the regulatory amendments mean that such seafarer’s doctors abroad will not be able to register or check medical certificates or declarations of unfitness electronically. The regulatory amendments will not, however, affect the seafarer’s doctors in Norway and other countries with an adequate level of protection.
Seafarer’s doctors with a Norwegian approval have been delegated administrative authority by the NMA, and they are the public administration’s initial point of contact for the issue of medical certificates and declarations of unfitness pursuant to the Health Regulations.
The regulatory amendments mean that seafarer’s doctors in third countries without an adequate level of protection pursuant to the GDPR and the Personal Data Act will no longer have access to the NMA’s database and will not be able to register new medical certificates or declarations of unfitness, or to check previously issued certificates or declarations in the database.
Employees working on board Norwegian vessels
These regulatory amendments are likely to have little impact on most employees. A few employees may hold back information about a declaration of unfitness or a limited medical certificate if he or she sees another seafarer’s doctor for a second opinion rather than appealing the decision for a declaration of unfitness or a limited medical certificate. In the opinion of the NMA, it will be unfortunate if this leads to a circumvention of the purpose of the Health Regulations. Pursuant to the Health Regulations, the appellate body for health cases may consider appeals against decisions made by seafarer’s doctors and applications for exemption from one or more of the health requirements, cf. the Health Regulations section 14 first paragraph. Please note, however, that it is not a ircumvention as such to request a second opinion by another seafarer’s doctor instead of appealing or applying for exemption.
Seafarer’s doctors
- The regulatory amendments will lead to changes for seafarer’s doctors in third countries without an adequate level of protection pursuant to the Personal Data Act and the GDPR.
- For all other seafarer’s doctors, the state of the law will remain the same.
- The regulatory amendments mean that seafarer’s doctors in third countries without an adequate level of protection must send copies of limited medical certificates and declarations of unfitness to the NMA for registration in the archive.
The declarations contain sensitive personal data and must therefore be sent by regular mail or encrypted e-mail unless the seafarer’s doctor uses eDialog1 for secure submission of information and documents. Encryption is a built-in function in PDF and Word documents, but passwords should not be sent by e-mail. When e-mailing, the seafarer’s doctors should send the password using SMS/MMS or other safe, electronic means of sending – such as WhatsApp.
