MaritimeBlog. Safety
Safety Culture and ISM
I can guess that nowadays the word ‘safety’ is one of most used on board of modern merchant vessels, either verbally or in electronic documents or on paper. There is probably nothing wrong in it. The problem arises when we start using this word without attaching any real meaning to it, as a sacred word from the moder prayer book - ISM. Safety is a tag, password and a magic word, which makes from just a job - the safe job, just because few pages of checklists were printed out and reluctantly completed. That is where ISM usually begins and ends - call whatever you do the safe job and if no accident happened all requirements are met. So what is ISM, at least in its modern status of worship of words. I call it 'paper safety', a bureaucratic set of rules, instructions and checklists which on the basis of foolproof presumption covers every new accident with new checklist and circular, thus providing shipping managers with sufficient evidence against anticipated insurance claims. The simple truth is, that each or almost each accident leads to financial losses and monetary obligations, and most, if not all, of such losses and obligations insured. To get reimbursement from the insurers, the owners have to show that safety system is established and fully operational, for which purpose all these checklists and manuals are designed.
Then what is the safety culture and ISM in comparison and why they have not much in common. Safety culture helps individual to find and follow the safe way of performing his duties in an uncountable variety of cases, because no money but his life is on stake, because individual does not care much about an outcome of the dispute between the owners and the insurers in case of his death on board. Individual simply prefers to stay alive. This why safety culture cannot be promoted via ISM, they just have different goals. Safety culture existed and exists all the time men go to sea as the sum of skills, experience and education. It serves to each seafarer, whether one appreciates it or not, and helps to stay on board and return home in good health. As all natural things, safety culture has its weak points: skills, experience and education are not equally distributed between seamen, just as any other natural trait. But if understood correctly safety culture can be easy developed as skills and experience grow with the time spent at sea.
ISM, in its turn serves to ship managing companies (commercial bodies and not to seafarers) as a set of procedures developed to provide documentation of recorded activities which help to recover their insurance money in case of accidents. It does not develop in same way as safety culture does by evolution from simple to complex, by obtaining new professional and practical skills. ISM like a huge, weak, old sail which getting holed each time in new place and therefore getting patched again and again, with new holes appearing as soon as the old ones patched. It does not care about seaman real skill, education and experience which would help him to survive in emergency, so far as all procedures well documented and there is a proof that all trainings, briefings and instructions being carried out in accordance with safety policy – no matter what fate is waiting for seaman - all risks covered and company’s interests are preserved.
Moreover, ISM not only does not care about seafarers’ real skill and training it also does not much interested in qualification and experience of a seaman – employing less experienced and less educated man for less salary company provides him with sets of simple checklists which he only has to accurately fill in (no matter really checked or not) and follow all other procedures on paper only, which what is really done in practice. But what really matters is that all procedures documented and therefore company is covered for any accident which may happen. Even if some deficiency will be found inside this ocean of paper records, never fear – there is simple answer to all and any – new procedure to cover previous and so on and so on… Such foolproof system brings us all to fools level and thereupon treats us as fools. This why so many young seafarers have natural dislike and incomprehension of ISM as highly formalised and inhuman system.
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