SPONSORS OF HEIGHT & CONFINED SPACES WORK
THE MASTER’S RESPONSIBILITY FOR SHORE WORKERS
from risks and dangers on the ship or the installation and that of the contractors to co-operate and follow the Masters and crews instructions to ensure their own safety and avoid putting others at risk.
However, should any accident ensure involving the shore labour, it would seem that the owners cannot avoid the consequences of any negligence resulting from the actions of those workers while on the ship or installation.
SMS CODE
For this reason it is essential that the SMS code that is in place for the ship or installation has a clear and concise section outlining these responsibilities and the procedure in place for them to be implemented.
Increasingly in the shipping industry, as crews become smaller and ships become larger, the employment of shore labour at sea and in port is increasingly more common.
Strangely, responsibility for the safety of contractors or shore workers, whether the ship is at sea or in port or dry dock is a grey area in the marine industry.
This assumption in many companies that contractors are responsible for the safety of their workers or that a port of dry dock can issue an indemnity stating they accept responsibility for safety of shore workers while on board the ship or installation is very unsafe.
THE HSE AND MCA MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING
The two authorities have a memorandum of understanding that is mainly directed at a recognised division of responsibilities, especially for investigation, however there are a number of implications from this memorandum that the industry should be aware of. The most important of these is that the HSE is primarily responsible for enforcing legislation covering the safety of shore based personnel and work equipment supplied by the shore even when working on a ship.
Ships rarely carry any information regarding HSE legislation and many may not have any knowledge of this document. If this is the case, most Masters are ignorant of any responsibilities they have to shore workers. Equally there is ignorance ashore, demonstrated by the fact that when some dry docks assume responsibility of all safety matters on the ship for their workers, quite often this is assumed to cover outside contractors employed by the dry dock for work on the ship.
Regardless of any ignorance of the legislation all evidence points to the fact that the HSE would expect and hold the Master responsible for any breaches of HSE legislation. this is supported by common law which states that the Master is the ‘supreme authority’ on his ship, even when the ship owner, charterer or employer is on board.
DEFINING RESPONSIBILITIES Fifty years ago, Hopkins in ‘Business and Law for the Shipmaster’ wrote; “Stevedores and other contractors who board a ship as invitees and persons who come on board as licensees for their own private purposes or as guests, are all entitled to adequate provision against pitfalls and traps. Apart from specific regulations, the Master has a common law duty to provide such protection.”
This all leads to two separate responsibilities, that of the owner to protect the contractors or subcontractors
www.windenergynetwork.co.uk 91
Captain Michael Lloyd, MNM.FNI. Marine Adviser
Mines Rescue Marine
www.minesrescue.com
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