SAFETY4SEA SEAFiT - Issue 01

ISSUE 01 | Q1 2023 10 11 ISSUE 01 | Q1 2023 A R T I C L E A R T I C L E T he aim of the rest hour requirements is to avoid or minimize fatigue. The issues of adequate crewing and the effect of fatigue upon health and safety are clearly closely related. It is also notable that the cumulative effect of fatigue-inducing factors has an exponentially negative impact on seafarers. A brief case study Additionally, watchkeeper incapacitation is a serious is- sue, which leads to a number of groundings each year. For instance, a typical example of watchkeeper fatigue occurred at 05:15 in a June morning when a 1,990gt general cargo vessel ran aground on the west coast of Scotland. The chief officer had been on watch since midnight and was suffer - ing the cumulative effects of fatigue generated by the 6 on 6 off watchkeeping routine punctuated by regular port visits where he was expected to oversee all cargo operations. The chief officer fell asleep standing at the controls be - tween 04:05 and 04:15 and missed a planned alteration of course. He woke an hour later, still standing, as the vessel grounded. How many Work & Rest hours do seafarers have? The legal limit on how many hours to work on ships is established by ILO, taking into consideration the needs of marine industry. The hours of rest on vessels are defined as ‘non-working hours’; these do not include the intermittent breaks. The regulation concerning the working and rest time periods in shipping, according to the STCW 2010 and MLC 2006, is shown in Table 1 . The hours of rest can be divided in a maximum of two periods, one of which should be at least six hours in length. Two such consecutive periods should not be separated by more than 14 hours. A seafarer must be granted a compensatory rest period in case he/ she is required to be on call during rest hours. Moreover, operations like lifeboat drills, firefighting drills, and drills pre - scribed by national laws and regula- tions should be conducted to ensure minimum disruption of rest period. Number of ship working hours and hours of rest for crew members in all positions must be displayed in a place of easy accessibility for purpose of informing the seafarers in due time. A log recording number of hours of work and rest for every crew member must be always maintained. Where exceptions apply However, an exception can be made to all the above-mentioned, in case the master of the ship deems it necessary to require services of a seafarer in lieu of maintaining safety of ship, especially on emergency basis. Master can suspend the schedule of work hours and hours of rest in situa- tions of vessels distress and require a seafarer to perform necessary duties until normal conditions are restored. In addition, deck and engineer offic - ers, along with apprentices and cadets may be required to work more than the above-mentioned limits, all of which shall be considered overtime. For each hour of overtime work, the officer would be entitled to compensatory hours of rest and overtime remuneration. Key challenges in calculations Rest hours as defined in STCW are the same with those of MLC, although many industry insiders are confused Convention Work / rest in any 24 hour period Work / rest in 7 days Rest period amount & duration Notes & exceptions MLC 2006 A maximum 14 h of work. A minimum 10 h of rest. A maximum 72 h of work. A minimum 77 h of rest. Not more than 2 rest peri- ods, one of which shall be at least 6 h. The interval between rest periods of less than 14 h. The records shall be made each day. Exceptions are allowed, by means of Collec- tive Agreements. STCW 2010 (Manila annex) A minimum 10 h of rest. A minimum 77 h of rest. Not more than 2 rest periods, one of the interval between rest periods of less than 14 h. The records shall be made each day. Exceptions are allowed. Table 1: Working and rest time regulation in shipping (according to the STCW 2010 and MLC 2006) Working on ships is not one of the easiest jobs in the world but it is a challenging profession that needs energy at all times. That is why fatigue is seen as a significant contributory factor to many incidents in shipping industry and one of the major concerns for seafarers. CALCULATINGYOURWORK& RESTHOURSONBOARDWISELY: