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Last week, while checking our ITF database, I noted a ship in port that needed a follow-up inspection because of problems found at the previous port. Another inspector was called to assist a second engineer who had to go home. There were also questions regarding his performance and salary. At the time of vessel's departure from the port, the 2/Eng had not been repatriated due to the vessel requiring his licence to meet the Safe Manning Certificate.

So, off I went down to the harbour to meet the ship to make sure he had been repatriated as requested, and that he had received all his legal entitlements as per the collective agreement in place on the vessel. From the content of the previous inspection report, I was not sure what I would find or if the company was in compliance with the CBA in force on the ship. When I boarded and asked a few probing questions of the Filipino crew at the gangway, I was quickly able to determine this was not a crew who were under the thumb of the owners and it was unlikely they were being cheated. These men were open, honest and even cheerfully cracked a few jokes between themselves. I asked them about the Captain’s nationality and they replied that he was also Filipino. With that I set off to the Captain's office to meet with him and examine the ship’s employment and payroll records.

When conducting an examination of working conditions, we ask lots of questions – cargo details, charters, next port and payroll documentation. The Captain was extremely professional and cooperative. When I asked him how long he had been aboard, his response was one year. I raised my eyebrows and had to ask: "Why so long aboard with no holiday?". He told me he had completed six months as Chief Officer and now another six months after being promoted to Captain. I congratulated him on his promotion and then asked how long he had been a Chief Officer. He told me 14 years! My jaw dropped so far in shock I think it bounced off the table in front of me: 14 years as a Chief Officer and now finally a Captain! I asked him why so long and he told me he had been satisfied as a C/O. He had felt no real desire to take the next step, but that with the shortage of senior officers, it was time for him to meet his responsibility to the industry that had given him and his family so much. He accepted the position, and the responsibility and the rewards that go along with the job.

I enquired as to his next port of call – something we always ask – and he told me the cargo would be discharged in the Philippines. He added that this was the first time in his whole career that he’d call at a port in his home country and now he was bringing this ship in under his command. The Captain went on to say that he would probably sign off there as the port was only 60 miles from his home town.

Can you imagine what the odds are on all these things happening? Consider time, place and personal and professional factors... to sail to your home port in a remote part of the world on a vessel under your command after 14 years as a Chief Officer and nearly 25 years at sea – well, the odds seem incalculable.

So, it occurs to me that since the shipping company will not have to pay for taxis, hotels and airline tickets to get the Captain home for a well deserved rest, the least it can do is hire a private jeepney to drive the Captain the last 60 miles to his home.

To me, this is just good karma.

Congratulations Captain! Well done, sir, and thanks for running such a good ship where your crew feel proud to serve with you.

Now I'm going to write to the company in question and ask about that jeepney for hire.

Keep your heads up, stay alert and safe sailing.

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Anyone following the maritime press will know that despite the current downturn in every sector of the shipping market, one thing remains constant: the shortage of skilled seafarers continues. Latest estimates still project a shortfall of nearly 84,000 officers by 2012.

So, what's going on? Why have the present shortages and projected increased shortages not been addressed – even though we have known for many years that they were coming?

To get to the bottom of this and to finally begin to seek solutions, the ITF and shipping industry association INTERTANKO recently hosted 20 seafarers for a round table discussion on issues affecting job satisfaction. We looked at a number of areas and – having now reviewed the findings of this discussion – I thought I would offer an opinion, as a former seafarer and a longtime ITF inspector.

Just like you, I strongly believe that everyone knows what improvements need to be made in order to recruit and retain more seafarers. It's just that it will cost a bit of money and it will mean those dinosaurs that still exist in some shipping circles must back down from their age-old hatred of decent conditions for seamen.

First, let us realise that shipping companies have scoured the globe for the cheapest seafarers. Once one nationality makes inroads to better wages and conditions, the shipowners move on to the next-cheapest supply. Well, shipowners have now gone to the ends of the earth; they have found all of the cheapest seamen. And guess what? Hand in hand with globalisation, greater opportunities have come for educated workers in their home countries. It's pretty difficult to attract a young educated worker in the Netherlands, for example, to go to sea. And now it's getting pretty difficult to attract a young educated worker in India or coastal China to go to sea as well. Why take all that education and throw it into the brutal world of international shipping when you can stay ashore and enjoy a career at home with your family?

One thing is clear from the findings. Seafarers get very little respect from any quarter. It doesn't matter if it's owners, charterers, port operators, government authorities or the courts. Seafarers often find themselves at the head of the chain of blame.

Seafarers are feeling like criminals. In many countries, they are not allowed shore leave. And although the United States gets most of the criticism for this, it is not the only country giving us grief. There appears to be a lack of uniformity in the application of the ISPS Code. In fact, one of the suggestions by seafarers is that a complaints system be established so that countries violating the spirit of the code are held to account at the International Maritime Organization. Personally, I think that's an excellent suggestion. These nations know who they are, just as we do. If they cannot allow us ashore and allow us our dignity, then it is time to name and shame them.

I can tell you that in my own country, we have about three regional interpretations of what the regulations on port and ship security mean. And in one of those interpretations, the ITF inspectors' access to you has been curtailed by shipping interests. Can you imagine? Shipowners complaining about recruitment and retention, while their peers in the shipping industry are using the ISPS Code to shield themselves from those who will stand up to the exploitation of the seafarers aboard? Can you imagine a nation that will allow a substandard shipowner to use ISPS so that it can save on wage costs, medical expenses and victualing allowance?

At every shipping meeting or conference I attend, I hear shipowners lament, "we need to improve the image of our industry". Sadly, most seem to mean that they need to do a better public relations job rather than actually cleaning up the poor practices that still exist.

Regular readers will know I have written extensively on the perils of criminalisation. You, as seafarers, know better than anybody that if there's a pollution event on your ship, it's you that will get locked up and hauled off to the courts. Yes, the designated person ashore will get a nasty wake-up call, but they are not going to get locked up. I hope that our campaign with like-minded industry associations will start to pay off and governments will start to roll back much of the regressive legislation that traps seafarers in a legal net. This fight continues at the highest levels but also, just as importantly, in many of the countries that have regressive laws that unjustly persecute innocent seafarers.

Yes, life at sea is getting more difficult – everything aboard is more complex and procedures are endless – yet crew sizes are not increased. The burden on each seafarer has dramatically increased over the past 10 years and yet the wages have hardly been raised at all. Only a couple of months ago, the International Shipping Federation refused to increase the International Maritime Organization's recommended minimum wage for seafarers. Presently, that wage scale recommends a minimum wage for an AB of $957, inclusive of leave pay and overtime. This is for a 312-hour month – that's nearly 10.5 hours a day for this pathetic salary. Yet the leading industry association says this is enough and it is not willing to allow the ILO to recommend even a small increase.

That's not all. The ITF also recently asked the International Maritime Employers' Committee to sit down and renegotiate its collective agreement. Guess what the answer was? There will be no increase to the salary this year.

So, I ask you, our most valuable resource (that's what human resource professionals like to call us workers when they have nothing to offer): what do you think of our roundtable discussion with 20 seafarers? What do you think will help shipowners recruit and retain highly skilled workers in the future? Will you recommend a life at sea for your son or daughter? What is it going to take for the shipping industry to actually make that final step to ensure all seafarers enjoy decent work in decent conditions and to take the brutalisation out of this industry?

For now, brothers and sisters, safe sailing.

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