COVID-19 Pandemic has created the most significant global disruption in every aspect of our lives, maybe throughout the history of mankind, considering also the aftereffects.
In shipping also we have seen unprecedented predicaments taking place, in many aspects of the industry, with the employment (or the non-employment) of the Seafarers, being one of the hardest blows.
It is estimated that, currently, 400,000 seafarers have been stranded on ships because of coronavirus-related travel bans. Seafarers that are unable to be repatriated due to restrictions imposed by national authorities designed to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Similarly, it is estimated that another 400,000 seafarers cannot go to work. Working at sea beyond their contracted time results in physical and mental fatigue, increasing the risk of accidents onboard, maritime incidents, and environmental disasters. It is not a surprise that we have seen lately an actual surge of marine accidents in many aspects of the industry. On the other hand, those that cannot go to sea to work are having great difficulties providing for their families.
International Organizations constantly shout for a solution to this humanitarian crisis, however, National Authorities worldwide do not really take practical measures to assist, but rather hold the position that international travel of seafarers poses a great risk for COVID-19 spread. It is true that throughout the Pandemic we have seen a lack of communication and synchronization between nations regarding the policies and rules involving crew changes, even within the European Union. There have been initiatives and mutual international agreements that despite all efforts were not practically enforced at all or were short-lived. Finally, we have seen national protocols being drafted for allowing crew changes that instead of facilitating crew changes, they were making virtually impossible to follow, at least without an unbearable operational cost. Seafarers are the front-liners of international trade, as 90% of the global trade is being carried by the maritime industry but the way they are treated is far from the treatment they should receive.
To raise awareness of the crisis, more than 800 organizations and companies, globally, including ELVICTOR GROUP, have signed the Neptune Declaration on Seafarer Wellbeing and Crew Change, which calls on government bodies to take urgent action to safeguard the rights and welfare of seafarers. The declaration was developed by the Maritime Industry Crew Change Taskforce created as an outcome of the Global Maritime Forum’s 2020 Virtual High-Level Meeting. Notable members behind this action are Cargill, GasLog, the Global Maritime Forum, the International Chamber of Shipping (ICS), the International Maritime Employers’ Council (IMEC), the International Transport Workers Federation (ITF), the World Economic Forum, and others.
The Neptune Declaration (click here) urges governments, the maritime industry and other key stakeholders to work together in order to give seafarers the key worker recognition they deserve and provide them with priority access to vaccines, as well as, standardize the certificates of testing and vaccination facilitating crew change operations; to establish gold standard health protocols by collectively implement the IMO Crew Changes Protocols (click here) and be supplemented by the Singapore base STAR Crew Change Protocols (click here); to increase the collaboration between ship operators and charterers so that there are no Charter Party clauses preventing crew changes but rather facilitating relevant operations, taking in consideration the Best Practices for Charterers (click here) jointly developed by signatory dry and wet charterers; to promote a joint effort and collaboration between the maritime and the aviation industry to ensure continuous connectivity between key crew-changing hubs.
Further, inorder to create KPIs to better understand and measure the extent of the Crew Change Crisis, the Neptune Declaration Crew Change Indicator was established. It is published monthly, with data gathered from major ship managers, and provides information on the percentage of seafarers that are onboard past the time indicated in their Contracts of Employment and the percentage of seafarers that are onboard for over 11 months. The ship managers that are sharing their data are Anglo-Easter, Bernhard Schulte, Columbia Shipmanagement, Fleet Management (FLEET), OSM, Synergy Marine, Thome, V.Group, Wallem and Wilhelmsen Ship Management, collectively employing more than 90,000 seafarers.
Indicatively, in the July 2021 issue (click here) it is unfortunate to see that the percentage of seafarers that are onboard passed their initial contracted time, has gone up from 5.8% in May to 8.8% in July, a 52% increase. Similarly, the percentage of the seafarers that have passed 11 months onboard has gone up from 0.4% in May to 1% in July indicating a 60% increase.
All efforts apart, some factors are indicating that the crisis will continue for some time. The lack of vaccines in many seafaring countries, new variants of the virus emerging, the reluctance of the seafarers to be employed due to fear of leaving their families behind in a volatile situation, travel bans imposed by governments as an effort to slow the spread, stricter and complicated crew-change protocols in major crew-change hubs, are all factors that contribute greatly. Nonetheless, the initiative of the Neptune Declaration, having the backup of such great maritime players and hundreds of members participating, is certainly hopeful and a push towards normalizing the situation.
