Seafarer happiness levels have risen by a small amount. But seafarers are becoming increasingly unhappy about a lack of shore leave, which is driving mariners away from careers at sea.
A future shortage of crew crisis may be in our future.
Not happy
Seafarer happiness levels have risen by by about 10% in Q3, according to the latest edition of the Seafarers’ Happiness Index, which reported an average overall score of 6.59 out of 10. That’s up from the previous reporting period of 5.99 index points.
“There was, therefore, some improvement to be seen in seafarer happiness. However, the most serious and fundamental issue persists, that of leave. Whether it is crew change issues or the inability to access any shore leave, we are seeing anger, frustration, stress, annoyance and pain,” says the commentary to the Index.
The Index is compiled on behalf of the Mission to Seafarers, ship manager Wallem and the Standard Club, which is an insurer.
Lack of shore leave is driving mariners from the sea
Commentary to the index pointed to a disturbing issue – an inability to access shore leave is teaching seafarers that a career at sea is not for them. The compilers of the index report that a growing number of respondents have stated that they will not go back to sea after completing their trip or that they are “throwing themselves” into finding a new job.
“Some are seeking roles within maritime, but many are just looking for a way to get out,” the report says, adding that it is a sign of the trouble to come, namely a shortage of replacement crews and a drain of seafarers away from the industry.
A desire of seafarers to get away from the sea because of a lack of shore leave, among other things, is particularly worrying as there is a serious potential seafaring officer shortage in view.
Officer training and recruitment levels must “significantly increase” to avoid a serious shortfall by 2026, the global shipping industry has been warned by its two top representative bodies – the International Chamber of Shipping and BIMCO. There is a growing demand for STCW-certified officers, the bodies say in their “Seafarer Workforce Report“, which predicts that there will be a need for an additional 89,510 officers by 2026 to operate the world’s merchant fleet.
Performance and health impacts of a lack of shore leave
Shore leave is important. Talk to any current or former seafarers and they will tell you how important it is to be able to leave the ship for even a short time, to feel solid ground beneath their feet, to make a phone call or two, to have a change of scenery and to just not be on a ship at sea for a few hours.
A 2020 study by the World Maritime University found that:
- 1 in 6 seafarers felt “completely fatigued”
- 3 out of 10 felt stressed
- 4 out of 5 seafarers had affected work performance
- 1 in 3 felt experienced at least moderate adverse health impacts
- 1 in 10 (approximately) experienced severe impacts on health
“The impact of denial of shore leave is a significant finding of the study and confirms the concerns being raised in several quarters since the outbreak of the pandemic. Diminishing shore leave incredibly influences the well-being of those who frequently face long voyages without a break at any port. This is genuinely tragic. Shore leave is the privilege of each seafarer and permitting them sufficient shore leave in the long run increments the general efficiency of work on board,” the authors of the study wrote.
Legal rights to shore leave
Shore leave is, in fact, more than a mere privilege. Seafarers have an explict legal right to shore leave. Regulation 2.4 of the Maritime Labour Convention specifically states: “Seafarers shall be granted shore leave to benefit their health and well-being”.
Throughout the pandemic, in breach of their international obligations, governments around the world have simply forbidden seafarers from taking shore leave on the grounds of public health. They apparently never thought to find ways of granting shore leave to seafarers while also protecting the public.
Today, national populations in countries around the world are becoming increasingly vaccinated. After a slow start, Australia now has a highly vaccinated adult population. Seafarers are becoming increasingly vaccinated too. According to the Neptune Declaration, which monitors seafarer issues, about 31.1% of seafarers in the sample had been vaccinated. The October figure is about 9 percentage points up from the figure for September. Ship operators are also increasingly demanding that maritime crew are vaccinated prior to joining a ship, so the percentage of vaccinated seafarers is only going to increase.
While seafarer access to shore leave should have been respected all the way through the pandemic, today, in highly-vaccinated countries such as Australia, there are no good grounds to prevent vaccinated seafarers from accessing shore leave.
Shipping Australia calls upon the Federal, State and Territory governments to do their utmost to vaccinate seafarers and to respect the legal rights of mariners to access shore leave.
It’s the compassionate and humane policy.
