Lives in Peril : Profit or Safety in the Global Maritime Industry?

Highlights how vulnerable seafarers are as a group of workers and that they are made so by the structure and organisation of their employment and the limits of the maritime regulatory system. Lives in Peril demonstrates how and why seafarers are a vulnerable group of workers. It argues they are made so by the organisation and structure of their employment; the prioritisation of profit over safety by the actors that engage and control their labour; the limits of enforcement of the regulatory framework that is in place to protect them; and by their weakness as collective actors in relation to capital. The consequences of this vulnerability are seen in data on their occupationally-related morbidity and mortality - evidence that probably only represents a partial picture of the actual extent of the physical, mental and emotional harm resulting from work at sea. This volume's central argument is that this situation is likely to remain broadly unchanged as long as global maritime governance and regulation remains in thrall to the neo-liberal economic and political arguments that drive globalisation, and fails to enforce regulatory standards more robustly Front Matter....Pages i-xi Introduction: The Health, Safety and Well-Being of Seafarers – Understanding the Challenges....Pages 1-14 Front Matter....Pages 15-16 A Picture of Health? Evidence of Mortality and Morbidity among Merchant Seafarers....Pages 17-42 The Hazards of Work in Merchant Shipping....Pages 43-68 Front Matter....Pages 69-70 The Structure and Organisation of the Maritime Industry....Pages 71-97 Regulatory Features of the Maritime Industry....Pages 98-128 Managing Health and Safety at Sea (1)....Pages 129-148 Front Matter....Pages 149-150 Managing Health and Safety at Sea (2): Limits to the Conventional Approach....Pages 151-166 The Role of Organised Labour....Pages 167-186 Governance and Regulation: Drivers and Leverage in Support of Improved Management of Health and Safety at Sea....Pages 187-215 Conclusions....Pages 216-234 Back Matter....Pages 235-262