Is “safe” really safe?

Like a mantra, port authorities and corporations are endlessly confirming their commitment to ensure that Ports and Facilities under their ownership provide a safe workplace and that business activities are conducted in a manner that minimises any adverse environmental impact.

Such a policy ritual has been established on the basis that concern for the safety of employees and guardianship of the environment are essential for publicity and image effects, and is expected and demanded by stakeholders and shareholders alike as a matter of routine.

 Without doubt, working in a port poses its own dangers and risks. Increased mechanisation and containerisation has changed operating and working conditions within the last decades.

The times for untrained casual dockworkers performing low-end jobs are gone in nearly all ports of the world. An ever decreasing number of professional personnel are under high pressure to complete a multiplicity of tasks, making sure that vessels and goods arrive and leave on schedule.

At the same time, international bodies like the International Labour Organization ILO, governments and labour unions have made great efforts to address safety issues over recent years. It now seems that everything is more or less regulated: port work is governed by legislation, safety codes and a bunch of guidelines today.

International standards are commonplace, among them the ISO norms 9001 and 14001, or OHSAS 18001. However, looking behind the curtain – as we often do when conducting safety and environmental training and inspections in ports all over the world – it is sometimes striking to see a wide gap between theory and practice and, in particular, between existing safety “hardware” and safety soft skills.

“Laissez-faire” attitude

The range of non-compliances with even the most basic safety requirements (not to mention environmental) is as diverse as the variety of mentalities you can find on the different continents – but they can all be traced back to the same simple roots: low level of awareness or mere neglect to live the company’s commitment to its selfimposed safety or HSE policies.

This does not only concern less developed countries, but refers to the port and terminal reality of developed countries as well. For example, during a site visit to a chemical bulk terminal in Germany, we found the emergency escape stairways blocked by bags and cartons.

Asking the safety officer in charge about it, he declared unperturbed: “Oh well, these are the supplies for one of the next vessels about to come.” For sure, the respective officer knew that it is hazardous practice and strictly forbidden to obstruct escape routes, but after doing ‘laissez-faire’ for a while, it obviously became necessary to bring the malpractice back to his mind.

It is against this background that audits and regular inspections of externals are a good way to scan the status of safety compliance. While screening port company practices, in-house auditors are often found routine-blinded or biased, whereas auditors from outside may pinpoint wrongdoings that tend to be overlooked or, even worse, tolerated.

On a container terminal in the Middle East, it could hardly be overlooked that the manager was taking pride in the prevalent safety conditions, stating that the terminal was on the verge of its first HSE certification. On our question, why nobody on the terminal was wearing safety shoes or a helmet, he replied: “well, it’s too hot here!” It has been the same manager, by the way, who drove us by car with high speed over his terminal and replied to our question, whether there wasn’t any speed limit implemented: “Sure, it’s 30 kilometres per hour!”

The list of examples could go on endlessly – from holes on the walkways to oil spill combating equipment, which could not be demonstrated during an audit, because no one at the port was able to find the key for the container, to the fact that a terminal handling dangerous cargo did not possess a copy of the International Maritime Dangerous Goods (IMDG) Code, which is a basic requirement for all aspects of handling dangerous goods and marine pollutants in sea transport!

Luckily, there are also a number of good examples, where safety and environmental protection are important topics and on the employees’ minds through the work day. The question is: how can this be achieved in more ports?

Importance of awareness

Awareness is possibly the most important facet of workplace safety and safeguarding the environment. Awareness needs constant training and promotion in a company.

This is particularly true, when the handling of dangerous goods is involved, and you can find dangerous goods as defined by the IMDG Code nowadays everywhere.

It is estimated that at least 50 per cent of cargoes handled by port personnel are classified as “dangerous goods”, because they have the potential to cause damage to human life, environment and/or property. Therefore, the 2008 Edition of the IMDG Code, which entered into force at the beginning of this year, explicitly made it mandatory for “shore based personnel engaged in the transport of dangerous goods intended to be transported by sea to receive training in the contents of dangerous goods provisions commensurate with their responsibilities”.

That means that everyone in the supply chain, starting from manufacturing of dangerous goods to those responsible for packing, for shipping and finally for receiving the goods at the port must be trained accordingly! This training is intended to give all those involved in the transport of dangerous goods a better understanding of their own role and responsibility, from manufacturers, packers and shippers, to feeder services and port authorities.

Awareness requires information, training and involvement of employees, as well as “commitment from the top”. That means that concern for the safety of employees and guardianship of the environment are not just empty phrases or necessary considerations for publicity and image effects, they must be “lived”. “Commitment from the top” will trickle down the line and help all employees to keep safety on their minds.