Maritime Law and Management - Case Study Example

Maritime Law and Management affiliation Scenario Human errors can cause serious accidents like pollution if we take, for example, the gate tanker caused serious pollution due to lack of a safety practice. IMO has a maritime safety culture that deals with precautionary measures.This method of management ensures that accidents can be prevented through a culture of safety that follows the correct procedures and best practices. The shipping personnel must consistently think about the safety of the ship, and this can avoid any oil from polluting the waters. They should also seek continuous improvement. Such prerequisites are established in the ISM Code. IMO purpose is established in the ISM Code to reduce damages and accidents during shipping and voyage. Especially in operations of the ship. This code promotes cleaner and safer ships (Anderson, 2003, pg 23). The MV ‘Shields Happiness’ ship requires proper safety management to ensure competence by the crew in the ship. In this scenario between the Hall and South Shields, pollution was caused during voyage because the drip trays had not been cleared of oil and the oil later overflowed in the main deck. If the crewmembers had applied the safety management culture, they would constantly think about improvement and safety of the ship. They would have improved the deep trays by clearing the oil voyage. In addition, the Third Mate would constantly be thinking of safety and would have rechecked whether his instructions were followed. With this safety culture it places a duty on everyone on board to be constantly thinking about the safety of the ship, therefore another crewmember would have noted the discrepancy and cleared the oil on the drip trays, and this would have avoided overflow into the main deck that polluted the sea. Application of the safer culture management method would support and encourage safety in shipping. This method of management is successful if certain factors like commitment, belief and values are instilled to the shipping crewmembers. Such values of safety, if instilled in the maritime personnel, would create a positive impact (Anderson, 2003, pg 44). Scenario 2 The second scenario shows that the tanks were not correctly inserted, and the required oxygen was not at the required level that caused a 12-hour delay and this increased costs. To improve the efficiency and performances of the ship by the ship-owner, the method to incorporate would be the organizational culture. This type of culture applies where there is a group of people from and can form their culture. There are two perspectives on it that include the socio-anthropological and the organization psychology perspective. This organizational culture is a combination of values, rituals, heroes, and symbols. The socio- anthropological theory establishes that there is a deeper structure of culture in values, heroes, rituals, and symbols. The organizational psychology also focuses on shared beliefs and values. It deals with functional factors that can be manipulated. Endurance management can change the beliefs and values in an organization in maritime shipping. The two theories can achieve such cultures through the rewarding system, reporting systems, employee empowerment, organizational and managerial involvement. The purpose of the organizational culture is to maintain predictability and stability and changes its current organizational culture. This culture affects operations in the organization where it proposes new ways within the framework of the organization crewmembers personnel (Othman, 2003, pg 14). It can be effective through trial and error and effective practices.The highest level of management has the duty to ensure smooth operations of the ship. In this scenario, there were poor practices and inefficiency where the required oxygen level was 12% instead of 5% and this increased costs. The only way to address such cases is to adopt such organizational culture in where their management is involved. The ship owners should ensure that the crewmembers perform their tasks as required. The management should ensure employee empowerment through improving their values and beliefs. There should be a reward system that ensures that the best performers are motivated through rewards. Their beliefs and values promote safety in their operations. A reporting system is part of the organizational culture where any crewmember who notices a fault reports to the top management so that the necessary steps, if the. For example, if this culture was instiled in this scenario then a crewmember would have reported the mistake of putting 12% of oxygen and the management team would have been involved in ensuring the 5% oxygen was at the required level After such reports, the management should reward such crew members as they deem fit so that they can empower other employees to be effective in their performance and be quick top notice such issues of safety. Such policies of safety management systems are established in the ISM Code that emphasizes commitment to safety and encourages the personnel to report incidents that may lead to accidents, and the management should give positive feedback. The organizational culture functions well when the management identifies any inconsistencies in policies, operations, and values. If there is a working environment that is an active process that involves continuous improvement and commitment through motivating and encouraging personnel in initiating safety, improvements may contribute effectiveness in operations (Othman, 2003, pg 18). Such issues like in scenario two will be avoided, and delays will be avoided, therefore, the ship-owner will not use extra costs. Scenario 3 There are always problems associated with the implementation of the ISM Code such as resistance to change the low level of education; frequent staff turnover, insufficient knowledge of procedures (Karvonen, 2006, pg 18). Such problems make it hard for safety management policies to be implemented. Shipping involves much documentation where there are many irrelevant procedures and checklists in such systems. Managements focus on many paperwork exercises and most times the shipping personnel are not necessary willing to be involved in such systems. The most organization fails to support personnel. Such shipping vessels lack the necessary resources and insufficient training with requirements of ISM Code. This places motivation for safety management becomes weak among personnel (Karvonen,2006, pg 22).How to effectively promote proper practices there needs to be leadership and commitment by the ship owner and the personnel needs to have a sense of ownership when it comes to safety management systems promotes good communication between the office and the ship. Also, there needs to manageable levels of paperwork. In the scenario, there was the Spanish third mate had received a written formal warning that required restocking. The management system policy of safety stipulates that there is lot paperwork involved, and sometimes it is hard to know who is responsible for such tasks of filing paperwork and executing them. The third mate admitted that he thought that it was not his responsibility. The Master complained and called him an incompetent fool. This shows that there is a lack of support from the management team that is outlined in the ISM Code. There is a need for the management to be committed when it comes to dealing with their personnel since there is a lack of motivation from management where like in this scenario the Master insulted the third mate. This reduces commitment to ensuring efficiency and performance due to lack of commitment. Communication is the key between the ship and the office in regards to the ISM Code. The third mate suggested that he did not know that it was his responsibility to restock the ship from the formal warning issued. Clearly, there was a lack of proper communication as to whom the restocking process was supposed to carry out by. The office failed to appoint expressly someone in the crew to deal with the restocking issues.This situation can only be addressed if there are clear outlined responsibilities of everyone in the crew ship. In addition, there need to be guidelines as to whom formal complaints should be taken to and how they are to be dealt with. The management team that is the ship owner who must select a person to be in charge of such tasks. Scenario 4 Familiarizing and training of the crew help to reduce accidents and promote safety awareness. This places a burden on the company in times of personnel, finance, and time. The ISM Code Article 1.2.3.1 the SMS is required to comply with guidelines of STCW. There are standards that relate to training for seafarers and certification. The Directive 94/58 of the European Council outlines the minimum level of training (Anderson, 2015, pg 11). Article 1.2.2.3 of ISM Code has the training policy that outlines that a company should improve management skills of safety for the personnel ashore and also aboard ships. In this scenario, the Port State Control reported that the crew were not able to respond to instructions and did not know how to lower the boat using the devices safely. This shows that they are not qualified to work on the ship and did not undergo any training. The ship owner taking the responsibility to train the personnel especially for emergencies can solve this problem. The level of knowledge should be established so that the level of training can be carried out. However, training is not enough, and the ship owners should implement safe procedures that might change the behaviors of the personnel. This reduces risks of incidents like damage to property and the environment and reduction of pollution. In this scenario, the crew was kept on board for extra two months, and the wages were lower than the standard rates. This shows that there was a lack of transparency by the ship owner since they violated the contract. The ISM Code deals with transparency in shipping in daily operations where all parties must have full information. This implies that personnel should be aware of information that affects them and the company. This transparency includes efficient documentation and inspections of audits and writing reports. There should be a Designated Person that deals with the implementation of ISM Code (HARWOOD, 2006, pg 22). They may be a member of the crew and must have good knowledge about operations of the ship. This person can be used to give information about contracts in the ship. There should be transparency so that the personnel know when their contract should and how much they are to be paid. Scenario 5 The last scenario, the Master, questioned who was training the personnel.This shows that the personnel were poorly trained and according the ISM Code Article 8.2 establishes that personnel must be trained fully. The owner or Master has the responsibility to ensure that they have trained staff and train their personnel on the issue of emergency, pollution, and safety management. Therefore the issue that the master complains that his personnel are poorly trained it is his responsibility to ensure that before his personnel take up takes in the ship they are fit to operate the ships. The Master also complains that since he is very busy that is the responsibility of the Chief Mates job to deal with the personnel. These issues can be addressed by establishing to the Master that the responsibility of training personnel solely is based on the top management in ensuring that all personnel are well trained including the Chief Master. Such training includes training for emergency preparedness and environmental protection. Article 6.2 ISM Code outlines that all personnel must undergo a training session where Article 6.5 outline that the company must have procedures that identify any training required to support safety practices. References Anderson, P. (2003), Cracking the Code – The Relevance of the ISM Code and its impacts on shipping practices, The Nautical Institute, London. Top of Form ANDERSON, P. (2015). ISM code: a practical guide to the legal and insurance implications. Top of Form HARWOOD, S. (2006). Shipping finance. London, Euromoney Books. Bottom of Form Bottom of Form IMO (2005), Role of the Human Element – Assessment of the impact and effectiveness of implementation of the ISM Code, International Maritime Organization, MSC 81/17 Top of Form INTERNATIONAL MARITIME ORGANIZATION. (2009). Manual on oil pollution. Section V, Section V. London, IMO, International Maritime Organization. Bottom of Form Top of Form INTERNATIONAL MARITIME ORGANIZATION. (2010). ISM code: international safety management code and guidelines on implementation of the ISM code. London, International Maritime Organization. Bottom of Form Karvonen, T. Keltaniemi, A. Sundberg, P. Tikkanen, R. Nyman, T. Porthin, M. & Sonninen, S. (2006), Merenkulun turvallisuuden hallinta - (Maritime safety administration) Merenkulkulaitoksen julkaisuja 6/2006, Finnish Maritime Administration (FMA), Helsinki Othman, M. R. (2003), Effectiveness of Safety Management Systems (SMS) BY Malaysian Shipping Companies in Compliance to the International Safety Management (ISM) Code http://www.ismcode.net/research_projects/wmd_2003_paper.pdf Read More