Tag: Nautilus

Nautilus has welcomed ITF effort to end violence against women

Union wants action on fatigue findings

Strategic objectives for the merchant fleet and seafarer employment and training Nautilus is urging UK government ministers to come up with a detailed maritime policy document, setting out clear strategic objectives for the merchant fleet and seafarer employment and training.The Union's call comes after business and enterprise minister Mark Prisk told a meeting in London that when he took up his post he had been shocked to find there was no industrial strategy for the maritime sector.In a letter to Mr Prisk and shipping minister Mike Penning, Nautilus says it is supportive of the Marine Industries Leadership Council initiative to boost British maritime by developing greater dialogue between the sector and government departments and setting targets for growth.But, general secretary Mark Dickinson warns, 'there continues to be a lack of coherent approach to the maritime sector from the various government departments that have interests in the area' - with many examples in recent years in which measures to support the shipping industry had been undermined by conflicting actions taken by different departments.In particular, he adds, there has been no defined shipping policy since the previous government's Charting A New Course document, published in 1998, which contained 33 'action points' to ...

A study in response to the increased evidence of the role of fatigue and sleepiness Project Horizon is a major multi-partner European research study that brought together 11 academic institutions and shipping industry organisations with the agreed aim of delivering emprical data to provide a bettter understanding of the way in which watchkeeping patterns can affect the sleepiness levels of ships' watchkeepers.Read theProject Horizon Research Report 2012 outlined in the excerpts belowFind out more about Project HorizonView the video that includes the initial findingsReason for researchProject Horizon was established in response to growing concern about the increased evidence of the role of fatigue and sleepiness in maritime accidents. It is also closely aligned to the FP7 (Sustainable Surface Transport 2008 RTD-1 call) aims of increased safety and security, and reduced fatalities.The increasingly intensive nature of shipping operations means that seafarers frequently work long and irregular hours. Factors such as noise, vibration, sailing patterns, port calls, cargo handling and other activities can all reduce the ability of seafarers to gain quality sleep during their rest periods.The project was established to:define and undertake scientific methods for measurement of fatigue in various realistic seagoing scenarios using bridge, engineroom and cargo simulatorsdetermine the effects ...

Action on UK work permits Home secretary Theresa May is being urged to clamp down on shipping companies failing to comply with work permit requirements for employing foreign seafarers in UK waters.Nautilus International, the trade union and professional organisation representing 24,000 ship masters, officers, and other maritime professionals working at sea and ashore, has warned the minister of 'fundamental ethical and social' concerns over the standards of employment of foreign crews working in domestic shipping services.The union has highlighted the case of the Cyprus-registered general cargoship Daroja, which is operated by Streamline Shipping on a service between Aberdeen and Kirkwall.Nautilus contends that the crew members - a mix of Filipino and eastern European nationals - should be covered by work permit requirements, with the employer having to demonstrate that they have satisfied the labour market test by advertising the jobs locally at the domestic rate of pay for such jobs.'Nautilus does not believe that the jobs onboard Daroja were advertised in this way - if they had been, then there certainly would have been locally-based well qualified applicants,' said general secretary Mark Dickinson.The union has requested an urgent investigation by the UK Border Agency and is urging the minister to ...

Two more countries, Togo and Tuvalu, ratified MLC and Sweden is also poised to sign it Further encouraging steps towards the global adoption of a 'bill of rights' for seafarers, have been welcomed by Nautilus International, even though the UK still lags behind.Two more countries, Togo and Tuvalu, ratified the Maritime Labour Convention recently, and Sweden is also poised to sign, which will bring the total to 26. This means only four more countries need to sign for the convention to come into effect, as the tonnage threshold has already been met, says the Union's general secretary, Mark Dickinson.Togo, a narrow strip of land on Africa's west coast, is the latest to sign up in March. The Polynesian island of Tuvalu in the Pacific Ocean signed in February, and Sweden's parliament has already approved plans to ratify the International Labour Organisation's key maritime convention by the end of March 2012.Mr Dickinson said it was disappointing the UK was 'still lagging behind primarily because of political prevarication,' but encouraging news for seafarers that the convention was a step closer to making threshold entry.The convention will come into force 12 months after the date on which 30 ILO member states with a ...

Any attempt to make ransoms illegal may jeopardise the safety of seafarers Nautilus International has warned that seafarers will pay with their lives if governments outlaw the payment of ransoms to pirates.General secretary Mark Dickinson has written to prime minister David Cameron expressing concern about plans to create an international taskforce 'to discourage the payment of ransoms to pirates and other groups to eliminate the profit motive and prevent the illicit flow of money and its corrosive effects'.Nautilus fears that any attempt to make the payment of ransoms illegal would jeopardise the safety of seafarers held captive.The taskforce was announced by the PM during a recent international conference on Somalia. The government says the task force will bring together experts from across the world to better understand the ransom business cycle and how to break it.But the Union is concerned at signs of a concerted attempt by the UK and the US to prevent ransoms from being paid. Mr Dickinson said owners had no option but to pay to ensure the safe return of seafarers.'To consider that ransom payments should be prohibited or discouraged is deplorable - seafarers will pay with their lives and shipping companies will pay on their ...

Due to the lack of provision for training, education and safety for shipping workers Unions and MPs are putting urgent training and safety issues surrounding the nation's maritime industry back on the agenda "big time" this week.They are worried that the lack of provision for training, education and safety for shipping workers will result in a huge crisis in recruitment.Nautilus International union spokesman Andrew Linington told the Morning Star yesterday: "They are back on the agenda big time because there are so many burning issues."Nautilus and the Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union are holding talks on Wednesday to look at areas for mutual collaboration in the fight. The next day a working group of interested MPs will meet Shipping Minister Mike Penning.One of them, Hull East Labour MP Karl Turner, wrote in the latest RMT News that the group was already backing the union's efforts to apply the national minimum wage to British-flagged vessels in our territorial waters.The group "was set up at the end of the last Labour government and the minister is trying to kick this into the long grass. We won't let him." He added: "We need more jobs from the maritime sector, not just in ...

autilus International welcomes new agreement on working time for inland waterways Nautilus International has welcomed the new social partner agreement on working time for inland waterways.The Union was heavily involved in negotiating the agreement which will lays down important minimum rules for crew members and shipboard personnel working on passenger and cargo transport vessels operating in the inland waterways across Europe.'This is a great step forward,' said Nautilus International national secretary Nick Bramley, who helped negotiate on behalf of the European Transport Workers' Federation (ETF). In addition to the headline limit on yearly work, the agreement also stipulates that boatmen should work no more than 31 consecutive days. Today, many are obliged to work 60 or even 90 days without a day off, Mr Bramley said.The new agreement means that the Working Time Directive no longer applies and will provide more flexibility and new rules specifically designed to suit the needs of the sector including:total working time may not exceed 48 hours per week - though this may be averaged over up to 12 monthstotal night working time may not exceed 42 hours per weeka right to at least four weeks paid annual leave and to paid annual health checksa ...

The project made pioneering use of bridge, engine room and cargo simulators Pioneering research demonstrating that certain ship watch patterns carry an increased risk of sleepiness should serve as a wake-up call to the industry, warns Nautilus.The findings of Project Horizon, an 11-partner European research study, provide a first benchmark for understanding and predicting how different watch systems influence the level of fatigue or sleepiness of ship's officers. The 32-month EU part-funded research brought together academic institutions and shipping industry organisations, with specialist input from some world-leading transport and stress research experts.The project made pioneering use of bridge, engine room and cargo simulators to assess scientifically the impact of fatigue in realistic seagoing scenarios. A total of 90 experienced deck and engineer officer volunteers participated in rigorous tests at Chalmers University of Technology in Göteberg and Warsash Maritime Academy at Southampton Solent University to measure their levels of sleepiness and performance during the most common watch keeping patterns - four hours on/eight hours off (4/8) and six hours on/six hours off (6/6). Some volunteers were also exposed to a 'disturbed' off-watch period, reflecting the way in which seafarers may experience additional workloads as a result of port visits, bad weather ...