A NEW study has shown that the majority of seafarers are misreporting their work/rest hours.

The PHD dissertation from the World Maritime University, entitled “Practice Unveils Weaknesses: Analysing the Implementation of Regulations on Seafarers’ Work/Rest Hours”, found significant gaps in reporting.

The research, funded by the ITF Seafarers’ Trust, explores the implementation of work/rest hours regulations in the shipping industry, focusing on the management of seafarers’ fatigue.

Under the Maritime Labour Convention 2006 (MLC), a seafarer has the right to regulated hours of work and hours of rest.

The study analysed both seafarers’ recording practices and port state control (PSC) officers’ inspection methods, and examined how these practices align with reported compliance outcomes.

The study used data from surveys of 6304 seafarers, interviews with 55 PSC officers, and 16,269 PSC inspections, which revealed significant weaknesses in both compliance and detection.

A total of 64.3% of seafarers admitted to adjusting their records, while PSC officers reported high compliance rates, which contrasted sharply with the low compliance rates reported by seafarers at between 11.7% to 16.1%, compared to PSC reports of between 90% to 99.3%.

Seafarers experienced suppressed feedback, with 66.7% reporting their non-compliance was questioned by their companies.

Further, 60.1% of seafarers reported an expectation from companies to adjust records to ensure compliance, and 49.1% were instructed to do so.

The paper found this malpractice hinders proper fatigue risk management, impeding necessary corrective actions such as flag state reviews and amendments to manning documents.

Several issues were identified within the feedback system, such as suppressed, under-utilised, skewed, and ignored feedback, all of which the study says undermines the effectiveness of the regulatory framework.

The study emphasised the need for further research to address these issues, suggesting that addressing the issue will improve both safety and fairness in the shipping industry.