Chapter 2

Related literature about the challenges and problems of seafarers

This paper presents an examination of research about the challenges and problems of seafarers
Maritime industry seen as one of the fastest growing jobs now a days and it provides
enormous numbers of employee comprising of individuals from several countries.
Maritime industry creates good impact on Philippines economy thru the help of Filipino
modern heroes also known as Overseas Filipino Workers (OFW). Filipino seafarers are
competitive among others due on reliable and hardworking personality. Despite of that,
maritime industry provides a lot of challenges on each individual which is part of the
industry and it is entitled as one of the most critical jobs around the world. This study
focusses on the challenges may encountered of Filipino seafarers on board in order to
propose work-life balance. With intent to help Filipino seafarers to improve their way on
how they handle daily life on and off the vessel. Mostly of the seafarer have 0 to 10 years
of service in industry experience challenges onboard. The result describe that the
common challenge onboard is homesickness followed by fatigue, family issues,
discrimination, bad communication onboard and poor relationship in work place.
Moreover Filipino seafarers said that problems and challenges are existed defend on
companies. Difficulties and problems are normal in life. Those challenges served as
milestone to improve individual ability on how you survive and learn to handle the way
of life. Seafaring can be tough on families and social life, but it needn’t be a relationship
killer. There are things which can be done to make the isolation or distance feel less
damaging. But it does take work, determination and a bit of support from those ashore.
Loneliness, homesickness and fatigue are three of the most debilitating and damaging
psychological problems among seafarers. These are caused by long periods away from
home, the reduced number of seafarers per ship, and increased work load. The stresses of
any ship are felt by the crew.
The biggest cause of stress though, according to a study of Australian seafarers, was the
relationship between home and work. In fact at its worst, marital and family problems are
even known to contribute to suicides at sea. There have been many studies over the years
into the effects of shipboard life, and each has found that when links to home get
stretched or broken, then real problems follow. It seems there is little which cannot be
overcome with some feeling of support from home, but without that life gets a whole lot
harder.

According to a study by the Seafarers International Research Centre (SIRC), there are
some major factors that determine the impact on the family life of seafarers in all
countries.

Length at sea: Partners whose relations worked for four weeks or less found the period
apart acceptable – for the rest, there were issues. All nationalities said they faced
loneliness during absence, then even some “irreconcilable emotional distances” even
when they were together.
Demands on leave time: Sometimes being home isn’t always without worries. Leave
time is not free of work for most seafarers – there are often training courses to attend, and
according to SIRC some UK officers often return exhausted and take a long time to
recover.
Ship visits and spouses sailing: Spouses feel much closer to their partners and
understanding of their occupation if they are allowed to sail with them. Those not
allowed to sail regret it and feel shut out and alienated from his life on board. Alas,
family sailing is less and less commonplace these days.
Company support: Company support of all kinds, no matter how minor, is valued and
helpful. It is particularly important to be able to get in touch with a seafarer in an
emergency, and partners like to know where the seafarer’s ship is. Contact with other
seafaring families is valuable. Some organisations, like the Watch Ashore, can provide
some comfort.
Communication: Communication is of crucial importance, allowing relationships to
develop and be sustained, often over long absences. It helps seafarers to feel part of their
families, able to take part in everyday events and make decisions. Access to internet and
calls is the most important issue today for many at sea.
Hidden costs: The nature of life at sea often imposes different financial burdens and
work constraints on other members of the family. Some partners do not take jobs or have
to have lower level work to accommodate having time off when their seafarer kin return
home.
safety and health of seafarers has been for many years and still is a matter of concern to
governments, ship owners and seafarers because of the particular dangers inherent in
employment onboard ship. Despite the substantial progress that has been made in this
field over the years, seafaring remains a risky occupation. The dangers to which ship
owners and government are exposed are financial or political in nature, but seafarers are
exposed to physical risks, which threaten their very lives. In addition, the properties of
living and working condition onboard, family problems ashore and home alienation
expose the individual to potential health risks and stress. Seafarer’s social life is a
complex life and it affects his work performance. Therefore, maritime countries have a
moral international obligation to ensure that the world’s seafarers enjoy adequate safety
standards and decent human working conditions. International maritime safety legislation
deals with the ship, its structure, machinery and safety equipment, as well as the
seafarers, their qualifications, training and health. As they remain the most vital element
to the safe and efficient working of 2 any ship they are often blamed for what goes wrong
onboard while they are the victims of management that ignores stressful conditions that
could be eliminated. Increased safety awareness and environmental protection depend not
only on the qualification and training of the crew or on the high technology in ship
construction and equipment, but more so on living and working conditions onboard and
the health and well-being of the crew and their families. In many places of the world
there are ship owners who cut costs and lower safety, living and working conditions.
They are still able to operate with relative impunity. They sail under flags belonging to
FOC or developing countries. Most of these vessels have a poor track record and it is
invariably the crews who suffer. They are affected by environmental risk factors in
everyday activities. The total majority of seamen lives and works in conditions that are
extremely harmful to their health. The factors that affect them are: vibration, noise,
electromagnetic field, long term stress, the changes in time and climatic zones, irregular
sexual intercourse, etc. It has a great negative influence on their health condition and their
lives. Health problems that are characteristic of society in most part depend on people’s
lifestyle and behavior. Not only biomedical status matters, but also social and
psychological aspects of life are very important in the individual state and evaluation of a
subject’s health. Evaluation of health condition and lifestyle, that are some of the most
important elements of human’s quality of life, are a very important things. The quality of
life among Lithuanian seamen is a new concept, which has not been investigated and no
studies were found about QOL of this group of people. There are some studies about
cardiovascular status of them (Norkiene, 2004). Hopefully this study will bring
information about the most common factors that generally affect the QOL among the
seamen. The results hopefully will bring discussions to help to improve the work of
institutions, which are responsible for seamen’s health conditions. Meanwhile seafaring is
a stressful occupation, with long hours and fatigue often posing problems for crew. A
lack of facilities for exercise, poor nutrition, isolation and smoking and drinking can also
spell bad news for onboard health, so it’s important to take steps and stay well
(International Transport workers’ Federation 2015). There are lots of diseases onboard
that may affect the health of seafarers. Seafarers may get Malaria. Malaria is life
threatening disease transmitted by a female Anopheles mosquito. Other disease is the
HIV/AIDS and STI or transmitted diseases. It is a diseases transmitted due on direct
contact from the source or carrier such as doing an affair or sex. Another problems
encountered by the seafarers is depression, it is a factor that may affect the seafarer’s
health due on some other problems 161 LPU–Laguna Journal of International Tourism
and Hospitality Management Vol. 3, No.1 September 2015 in workplace such as
harassment, discrimination, fatigue homesickness and relationship onboard (International
Transport workers’ Federation 2015). Meanwhile, some challenges onboard affect
seafarers. According to study of Hebding (2013), one of the challenges is Harassment.
This problem become as challenge in between or among crew members or officers in the
ship which is necessary but for those women who have strong determination and those
who know how to carry their selves and it would not be affected. Sexual harassment is
also rampant when there are only very few females on board ships and the males do not
have anyone to deal with except them, (International Transport Workers Federation
2015). According to International Transport workers’ Federation (2015), Harassment is
more often on women, sea women make up only an estimated 2% (percent) of the world's
maritime workforce. It said women seafarers work mainly in the cruise and ferries sector,
often for Flags of Convenience (FOC) vessels. These are among the worst paid and least
protected of jobs at sea. Women also tend to be younger, and fewer are officers than their
male crew mates. Their low number means that women can be subject to discrimination.
The maritime unions are alert to these threat and aim to protect the interests of women
members who are about 23,000 worldwide. In other issue, Hardworking can cause
another problem that Filipino seafarer may encounter onboard. In line for being a
hardworking of Filipino seafarers, they encountered some problems such as fatigue.
According to Smith, Allen et al., (2009) Fatigue is caused by poor quality sleep or
insufficient sleep due primarily to a worker’s living environment, off-duty personnel
choices and medical conditions. There are huge potential consequences of fatigue at sea
in terms of both ship operations such as accidents, collision risk, poorer performance,
economic cost and environmental damage and the individual seafarer. Not only there
have been relatively little research on seafarers’ fatigue but what there has largely
focused on specific jobs, specific sectors and specific outcomes. Maritime workers are
not well-rested; it becomes difficult for them to operate machinery properly. Meanwhile,
separation from partner and family has been found to be one of the most significant
causes of stress for seafarers, with separation from the family one of the most important
‘stress’ factors influencing a decision to reduce planned sea service. Drawing on the in
depth interviews with partner of seafarers in the United Kingdom. China and India, this
paper focuses on the impact of seafaring on family life, with particular attention given to
the effects of differing conditions of service and the range of company support available
to seafarers and their partners. The paper concludes that the negative consequences of
seafaring can be minimized by such policies as shorter trips, continuous employment
(rather than employment by voyage) and opportunities for partners and families to sail.
Family matter such as conflict or event can also affect the seafarers which can cause over
thinking. It is a big factor for the seafarer that leads to a big rush going home. Other
problem that seafarers encounter onboard is about Salary/wages. According to
International Transport workers’ Federation (ITF 2015) each year, crew members on
about 1,500 ships complain to the International Transport workers’ Federation, the
employer is unwilling or unfit to pay their income. “feeling lonely if do not receive
communication from home”, “feeling bad when receiving bad criticisms from
superiors”., and “difficulty in adjusting to various weather conditions”—for
psychological problems; and “not participating social activity on board”, “uncomfortable
of sharing personal opinions and views regarding different matters on board’, and
“hesitant to go with friends on go ashore”—for social problems. Least pre-dominant
problems were: “spending money for gambling”,” spending money for alcoholic drinks”,
and “spending money for women in every port”—for economic problems; “bored in
performing routinely tasks”, “do not feel comfortable with new crewmates”, “lazy to
perform tasks involving long voyage”, and “difficulty communicating with foreign
national peers”—for psychological problems; and “hate to teach subordinates”, “do not
respect superiors when it comes to responsibilities “, “ do not respect to share tables with
subordinates during lunchtime”, and “ have problems socializing with new crewmates” –
for social problems. Generally, the seafarer had “slightly serious” economic, psychology,
and social problems and they did not differ significantly in their economic , psychology,
and social problems.

Global concern about the issue of fatigue at sea is widely evident across the shipping
industry. Fatigue-induced human errors have been identified as major contributing factors
in most maritime accidents. This paper attempts to explore an approach to evaluate the
degree of seafarers’ fatigue and to propose some suggestions on fatigue prevention and
management. According to the definition given by the IMO, Fatigue is a state of feeling
tired, weary, or sleepy that results from prolonged mental or physical work, extended
periods of anxiety, exposure to harsh environments, or loss of sleep. The effects of
fatigue are impaired performance and diminished alertness. In this study, the definition
and effects of fatigue at sea are first examined, followed by a review of fatigue-induced
maritime incidents and the prevalence of fatigue in the maritime industry. The factors
affecting navigation officers’ fatigue are categorized into four groups in this study: crew-
specific factors, management factors, ship-specific factors and environmental factors.

The primary objective of this research is to tackle the issue of fatigue at sea and establish
an evaluation model for seafarers’ fatigue that can be universally applied in the shipping
industry. The subsequent purpose is to give a general understanding of fatigue, which
includes its definition, the contributing factors and its effects in the maritime domain. The
prevalence of fatigue and the relationship between fatigue and maritime accidents are
also to be examined. Other general aims include proposing a number of recommendations
to seafarers, shipping companies and policy makers so as to combat the issue of fatigue
efficiently in the maritime industry. Seafarers are not finding enough time to carry
out maintenance work on ships as a result of short port stay and reluctance of port
authorities to grant ship immobilization. Port authorities want ships to finish loading and
discharging of the cargo and move out of the ports as soon as possible. This gives very
less time to the seafarers to carry out important maintenance work before the ship starts
sailing again. With fast loading and discharging rates of the cargo at ports, especially for
the former, it has become increasingly difficult for a seafarer to fly out and join a ship in
a distant port. This is because by the time the visa is processed, the ship is already loaded
and ready to sail. In the matter of seafarer training, greater emphasis should be given to
on-board training involving marine equipment manufacturers and shipyard personnel.

Shore based training by conventionally certified Masters and Chief Engineers though
good is not enough and even useless if such training is being imparted in an improperly
registered college run by those who have never set their feet on board ships in last few
decades. These days, good ship maintenance work movies have been developed and
companies should ensure that they are shown on board with regularity and honesty. The
most difficult times I had to face during my time as a seafarer were my encounters with
pirates. Only last year while we were sailing around the Seychelles Islands just off the
Somalian Coast headed for the Swiss Canal, the vessel I was on was attacked.

While it cannot be said that the ship was not prepared for an attack, in reality there is very
little you can do to prevent pirates from coming on board. The pirates were able to gauge
the speed of the ship and travel in high powered vessels at double or triple the speed of
our ships. There is nothing you can do, guns are prohibited on board, and so whatever the
pirates wish or instruct you to do must be done. Otherwise you will be killed. The first
thing the pirates do when they board a vessel is to look for the Captain or Chief Engineer.
Then they will go up to the bridge, lock everything, ask for a crew list and call up each
crew member in a single file. It is very organized.

Really, the pirates are nice people if you know how to deal with them. They are the same
as you and I. They are a mix of cultures and nationalities - Indonesian, Malaysian and
even Filipino. I don’t know their motivation or living conditions because once you are
talking to them, you cannot risk asking something they do not want to answer. They are
very friendly as long you don’t go beyond the questions they ask, otherwise they get
pressured and temperamental. If you don’t behave or if you try to resist, they will not
hesitate in killing you. They don’t care who you are or what you are, they try to kill
everyone.
Despite recent advances in injury prevention, accidents due to harmful working and
living conditions at sea and of non-observance of safety rules remain a main cause of
injury and death. Mortality in seafaring from cardiovascular diseases (CVD) is mainly
caused by increased risks and impaired treatment options of CVD at sea. Further,
shipboard stress and high demand may lead to fatigue and isolation which have an impact
on the health of onboard seafarers. Communicable diseases in seafaring remain an
occupational problem. Exposures to hazardous substances and UV-light are important
health risks onboard ships. Because of harsh working conditions onboard including
environmental conditions, sufficient recreational activities are needed for the seafarers'
compensation both onboard and ashore. However, in reality there is often a lack of leisure
time possibilities. Seafaring is still an occupation with specific work-related risks. Thus, a
further reduction of occupational hazards aboard ships is needed and poses a challenge
for maritime health specialists and stakeholders. Nowadays, maritime medicine
encompasses a broad field of workplaces with different job-related challenges. Seafaring
is still associated with relevant mental health risks. Information on known stress factors
on board should be provided to seafarers to help them in lowering stress perception.
Strategies for coping with "inevitable" stress conditions should also be investigated and
developed. Strategies to decrease risks of stress should be directed to the different
categories of seafarers, and the results of specific interventions should be evaluated.
Seafaring is an inherently stressful environment. Because working time and leisure time
is spent in the same confined environment for a prolonged period of time, many stressors
present in seafaring can also be conceived of as chronic. We explored the effects of
duration at sea, seafaring experience, environmental stressors, and psychological capital
(PsyCap) on the sleep quality and fatigue of seafarers. PsyCap is a construct that draws
upon ideas from positive psychology and positive organizational behavior, and is
intended to capture an individual's psychological capacities that can be developed and
utilized for performance improvements. Though most of the seafarers can digest the fact
of staying away from friends for few months when sailing, parting away from the family
for months together is what tear their hearts apart. Some might have just started their
married life while others would have recently experienced parenthood, missing those
precious moments with their loved ones for whom they care the most, is what hurts
seafarers to the core. No seafarer wants to miss spending time with his wife or see his son
or daughter grow old without him being around. It is then that seafarers realize the
importance of “family life” and “loved ones”. The pain of staying away for months is
also one of the main reasons seafarers quit sea jobs. Almost everyone who joins ships is
brought up in a social environment since birth. When such people are suddenly exposed
to confined spaces of ships with almost negligible social life, negative effects such as
frustration, loneliness, and homesickness start taking a toll on them. Initially the life on
ship might not seem bad, but as time passes, a sense of emptiness starts creeping in. Lack
of interaction with people and limitations on physical movement make life more
miserable on board. It takes a lot of courage and mental steadiness to keep a calm and
focused mind on ship. Many seafarers eventually quit because of this reason. No matter
how hard you try to stay away from professional or personal politics on board ships, it
will get to you sooner or later. Politics and conflicts on ships not only make it difficult to
work but also to socialize within the already small group of people on board. Moreover,
there is a very thin line between professional and personal life on ships. This makes it
even more difficult to avoid as well as deal with politics or conflicts arising as a result of
differences in opinions. One needs great determination, patience, and skills to deal with
difficult people on board ships, especially after having professional/personal arguments.
This is the most common and obvious reason as these days more seafarers want “settled”
jobs on shore. At the start of the career, a seafarer would not mind having a “nomadic”
kind of lifestyle, but after certain years, especially post marriage, he longs for a more
stable lifestyle, especially with his family. This is definitely not a new reason behind
seafarers quitting sea jobs, but it is still one of the prime reasons for professional
dissatisfaction. One cannot deny the fact that life on board ships has become extremely
hectic. With more stringent maritime regulations coming up each year, life as a seafarer
has become increasingly hectic, laborious, and monotonous. Increase in paperwork,
advanced training guidelines, new codes, and rigorous safety and environmental laws
have made the lives of seafarers extremely hectic on board ships. Moreover, many
seafarers have also stated poor management of manpower on board ships as a reason for
increase in work load. Needless to say, the already hectic life on ships is becoming even
more hectic every year.