The safety fairy tale: From inception to reality
Safety
One of the most widely spread fairy tales in our industry is about safety. Onboard every vessel you will find the same motto to be posted in several spaces ranging from superstructure to alleyways all the way down to the Engine Room: SAFETY FIRST. There is also a good example of a company who rephrased/translated SCF to Safety Comes First onboard their vessels. A nice sales pitch. Believe it or not someone has to sell safety in these days.
Well the question is can you define safety? Do you think that the seafarer is able to define safety? Does the industry in general have a practical approach to what safety is?
The point is : Do we care? Does the IMO care?
Lets focus on the IMO case:
- SOLAS stands for Safety of Life at Sea. There are several definitions included, from vessel to proper bulk carrier; however there is NO definition of safety.
- ISM stands for International Safety Management Code. There is a definitions dedicated section, stating what a Non Conformity and objective evidence are but there is NO definition of safety
Two key IMO instruments fail to properly identify and treat safety by defining same. Amazing at least!
What about peoples perception? In an industry that is lacking the proper safety leadership, no wonder you will be amazed by the variety and the quality of responses received by asking a simple question: Can you define safety? The most reliable and realistic reply is provided by professor Kuo who was actually the head of the respected IMO Maritime Safety Committee:
“Safety is a human perceived quality that determines to what extent the MANAGEMENT, ENGINEERING/DESIGN and OPERATION of a system is FREE OF RISK to life, property and the environment “
That takes us to a key conclusion: Safety is about minimising Risk. Period. In other words minimizing risk improves safety. This is why we see a Risk buzz spread in the industry during the last years.
Safety Culture
The term Safety Culture firstly appeared in literature as late as 1988, despite what many think that the term should be existent for a minimum of two or three centuries. The term safety culture was first used in the Summary Report on the Post-Accident Review Meeting on the Chernobyl Accident where it was described as: That assembly of characteristics and attitudes in organizations and individuals which establishes that, as an overriding priority, nuclear plant safety issues receive the attention warranted by their significance. This concept was introduced as a means of explaining how the lack of knowledge and understanding of risk and safety by the employees and organization contributed to the outcome of the disaster.
Actually Chernobyl brought attention to the importance of safety culture and the impact of managerial and human factors on the outcome of safety performance. There is a much simpler and easier way to describe safety culture today: It is the way we do business, safety, quality, environmental risk wise etc.
It is clear that organizations with a positive safety culture are characterized by communications founded on mutual trust, by shared perceptions of the importance of safety and by confidence in the efficacy of preventive measures.
The question is how many organisations are you able to identify with such a positive safety culture?
The Fairy Tale issue
Fairy tales in many occasions are either versions of the truth or a flip side of same. In this case we have a phenomenal approach. Many talk about safety but the end result is not in line with the wording. Many insist that safety culture is a concept whose time has come, stating that there is both a challenge and an opportunity to develop not only a clearer theoretical understanding but also realise practical results.
Judging from the end result, unfortunately the term safety and safety culture may be realistically considered a fairy tale in these days. Rest assured that you may find a number of top quality operators that are doing their best to treat safety along with many other things properly. Is this the rule to the market or is it the exception?
We are at the same time witnessing an increasing number of substandard practices and operations going on in the market with penalties such as fines and Port State Control Detentions, setting aside the worryingly increasing record of accidents.
Bear in mind that safety is tested onboard every day. If the crew cannot understand what safety is, there is no meaning to further discuss and analyse. Thats why they say you need to have everything to be fool proof in these days.
