One of the points in Minister for Industry Morten Bødskov’s 8-point plan to combat harassment and bullying in the Danish merchant fleet was that the Merchant Fleet’s Working Environment Service should allocate resources to assist shipping companies in addressing specific problems with bullying and harassment on the ships.
Now the Working Environment Service, which is an independent unit under the Merchant Fleet’s Working Environment and Welfare Council (SEA HEALTH & WELFARE), is ready to deploy and, together with shipping companies and crews on Danish merchant ships, work to eliminate harassment and bullying in favor of a safe and healthy working environment on board.
Interviews with crew members to ensure an overview
The tool is a free working environment assessment, which is conducted on board the individual ship, with the aim of creating an overview of the measures that have been taken to be able to work safely and securely without encountering harassment and bullying while working on Danish merchant ships.
The working environment assessment is carried out by the Working Environment Service’s consultants and takes the form of a series of interviews with selected members of the crew. Combined with conversations with the ship’s management and members of the safety organization on board, these interviews create a basis for establishing a dialogue between the ship and the consultants regarding opportunities and barriers for a safe and healthy working environment on board.
The Working Environment Service’s consultants have already begun preparing this autumn’s working environment assessments on various types of ships in the Danish merchant fleet, in order to help the shipping companies and crews on board identify and remedy potential challenges with harassment and bullying.
The working environment assessments will be carried out as agreed visits, where the shipping company is involved from the beginning. This is to ensure both transparency and the opportunity to plan the working environment assessments in relation to the ships’ routes and the crews’ other workloads.
“We look forward to getting out and talking with the shipping companies and the many seafarers we will meet on board the ships, and hope that the entire industry will support this important work to ensure seafarers the best possible working environment conditions without harassment and bullying,” says T. Mathias Augustsen, daily manager of the Merchant Fleet’s Working Environment Service.
See more about our work on our website, , or contact daily manager T. Mathias Augustsen by email at tma@shw.dk or phone +45 2960 7427, if you have any questions.
