Textbook of Maritime Medicine

3.2.1  Global market for officers and crew

The Baltic and International Maritime Council (BIMCO) www.bimco.org estimate a seafaring workforce of 466000 officers and 721000 ratings in 2005. BIMCO/ISF (2005) North Americans, Western Europeans and Japanese are the main nationalities among officers, East Europe, India and countries in the Far East and South East Asia supply the major share of ratings in the world fleet.   BIMCO is located in Denmark and develop standardises contracts used in the freight and newbuilding markets.  The international labour organisation estimated a similar number (1, 2 mill seafarers) in the 1920s.  This by the way is another indication of the much higher productivity in the current fleet, as both cargo volume and distances has increased substantially since the 1920s. 

Figure3.14:  Seafarers by Area of Domicile in 2005 Catering and hotel staff are excluded. (‘000 seafarers)

Source BIMCO/ISF (2005, 1)

http://www.marisec.org/resources/Manpower2005UpdateSUMMARY.pdf 

There is a shortfall of officers.  Drewry (2008) http://www.marinebenefits.no/visartikkel.asp?art=268 points out that the situation has aggravated as they estimate the shortfall in 2008 to be 34000 officers. They expect the shortfall to increase to 84000 officers by 2012.  This rising shortfall is partly explained by the age structure especially for officers from the west and from Japan.

Figure 3.15a) Age structure OECD officers, 3.15b): Age structure Far East Officers

Source:  Source BIMCO/ISF (2005, 5)

BIMCO/ISF Manpower 2005 update summary.   (ISF international shipping Federation) http://www.marisec.org/resources/Manpower2005UpdateSUMMARY.pdf

In 2001 The Maritime Labour Convention http://www.ilo.org/global/What_we_do/InternationalLabourStandards/MaritimeLabourConvention/lang--en/index.htm  was initiated (ILO, 2006).  It was adopted in 2006 and will come into force when it is ratified by 30 countries with at least 33 percent of world gross tonnage (GT).  The convention is assumed to be ratified by 2011 since EU is scheduled to make their decision on ratifying MLC by the end of 2010. 

MLC is meant to replace the current numerous international conventions that govern seafarer’s employment, standard of living and working conditions, health and safety, payment and repatriation. As stated by ILO MLC “once it enters into force, will be the “fourth pillar” of the international regulatory regime for quality shipping, complementing the key Conventions of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) such as the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea, 1974, as amended (SOLAS), the International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watch keeping, 1978, as amended (STCW) and the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships, 73/78 (MARPOL). http://www.ilo.org/global/What_we_do/InternationalLabourStandards/MaritimeLabourConvention/lang--en/index.htm  These and other conventions are presented in section 1.3.5.

3.2.2       Manning and work environment on board

Crew cost is the main elements of vessel operating cost. Shipping firms for a long time have sought to reduce operating costs by new technology.  Rationalisation and automation was used to dampen the effect of rising crew cost after WWII. This has resulted in a fewer crewmembers on board.  On the other hand, the time seafarers stay onboard has been reduced over the years so that the number of seafarers needed by shipowning firms to operate their fleets have not been reduced proportionally. (ILO,1996)

Older vessels may have larger crews than newer vessels partly because of the higher need for maintenance and repair. This may also reflect a lower degree of automation in older vessels.  Hence, changes in average age of the fleet influences demand for the maritime workforce.

* TEU = twenty feet container unit

Table 3.2 Crew size for different new vessels.

Source Stopford (2009)

Older vessels may have larger crews than newer vessels partly because of the higher need for maintenance and repair and may reflect a lower degree of automaion in older vessels.  Hence, changes in average age of the fleet influences demand for the maritime workforce.

The reduction in crew size together with the shorter turnaround time in port implies that crew members are more depend on their fellow crew members for social relations while on board.  The special challenges of being confined to your work colleagues for 24 hour a day studied in a pioneer project in the 1960s. (Thorsrud et al 1969,Thorsrud and Roggema, 1974)

In the 1960 and1970s, with the introduction of open registers and later also the international registers, national crews were replaced by crew from low cost countries, turning the labour market for seafarers into a global market.

The majority of the maritime labour force now comes for Asia and East Europe.  This is reflected in the manning of Norwegian controlled vessels in deep-sea trades.  Figure 2-16 illustrates the percentage of different nationalities onboard NIS and foreign flag vessels under Norwegian control in 2005.

Figure 3.16 Nationality of crew in NIS and Norwegian controlled foreign flag fleet, 2005. (ROW = Rest of the World) percentage shares

Source: Constructed from NSA data, NSA (2006) http://www.rederi.no/default.asp?FILE=items/1014/263/aarsrapport 2005.pdf