Seafarers should be safe and sound when they come back from a voyage

On June 18-19 Kaliningrad will become  the safest maritime city in Russia. A workshop of SUR's  labour inspectors will be held there.  The  experts from all territorial and regional organizations of the Seafarers' Union of Russia (SUR)  will come  together  to discuss   the vital and  urge  problems  of the  maritime  industry linked with  the labour safety. 

The short list  of  the  issues which will be discussed during the  Kaliningrad meeting  includes: taking part  in the  commissions  to  investigate the  occupational injuries  and also in the  court hearings to protect the  injured seafarers and their survivors; the seafarers'  complaint procedures; the  enforcement of the  national and international sanitary regulations on a shipboard; the  implementation of  the  Maritime Labour Convention  standards  into the Russian legislation.  

The  main task of the  meeting  is  to  share  the  experience  and  to assess the  knowledge  of the  SUR's labour  inspectors. For  two days  the  participants will listen to the lectures on core subjects. Evgeny Khizhnyak, who is  the  chief labour  inspector  at the SUR, will tell  about  the  results  of  the V All-Russia Safety Week  and analyze  in detail all documents which have been introduced during the meeting held in Sochi at  the end of April. He  will tell about the  investigations of the  occupational injury cases  on  the Russian and foreign ships and highlight  the most notable examples in his experience.  

Additionally,  according to the  International Labour  Organization (ILO), around 2,3 million men and women loss their lives in the occupational accidents or due to the occupational diseases   every year. It  means that 6,000 people die every day or one person  - every 15 seconds. The  crews of  the seagoing ships are  among the  top-10 professions exposed to the high level of injuries.  Unfortunately,  the  industry  that has taken a great step towards  the ship design, modern ships building and the introduction of   the  state-of-art technologies, remains  the most dangerous field.

That's why  the labour  inspectors and  their works  have the great importance for the  seafarers' health and  life. On their return in the  regions, they will continue  to visit  the  vessels at the  ports, provide recommendations for the members of the  ship committees to bring the ships' labour requirements  in line  with the national and international standards and actively spread the  information on reducing the  occupational injuries among the crew members. 

“Our task is to provide the safe  and  sound return of seafarers while they  get the  decent wages,” Yevgeny Khizhnyak said. 

The  seminar will conclude its work on June 19.