Reporting-practice and safety culture on ships in Danish International Ship Register
The shipping industry is highly globalised and we know too little about the impact on safety. Studies show that the accident rate varies considerably related to the nationality of the seafarers. This project (SADIS) takes this difference as its starting point as it is assumed to be of vital importance to the preventive work to clarify the influence on the safety culture as the crews are composed of different nationalities.
Objective
SADIS will provide qualitative answers as to why Danes in certain situations perform badly - and the Filipinos better - than other nationalities in international accident statistics. It is hardly just a question about nationality, but also a mix of social, cultural and structural factors. More knowledge about the relevant factors will qualify the preventive work, also in industries which are comparable to seafaring regarding gender, selection and life form, and which all score high in the accident statistics.
The project will study the reporting of occupational accidents over three years and follow the safety practice on board selected Danish ships with a multicultural crew.
Method
The project will use both quantitative and qualitative methods, divided into three steps:
• The reporting practice of the industry, including the possible role of the nationality of the seafarers, will be described on the basis of written and electronic sources and on interviews with key persons.
• The safety culture aboard ships with crews of different national composition will be studied. The concept will be divided into more manageable parts as we distinguish between a verbal, a silence and an existential level which will be studied by means of interviews and participant observation.
• Accident reporting to two relevant institutions, the Danish Maritime Authority and the insurance company/the National Board of Industrial Injuries (Arbejdsskadestyrelsen) will be monitored during the project period in a prospective study. Requests to Radio Medical regarding injury treatment and requests to the Danish Maritime Authority regarding refund of health insurance expenses in connection with accidents will also be recorded.
Economy
The project is funded by:
The Danish Working Environment Research Fund (Arbejdsmiljøforskningsfonden)
Time schedule
2010-2013
Project team
Sise Grøn1, (Project manager)
Line Richter1
Henrik L. Hansen1
Gizelle Cruz2
1 Centre of Maritime Health and Safety, University of Southern Denmark, Esbjerg
2 University of the Philippines
Download complete project description
We have made presentations about the project and its preliminary results on several conferences and seminars. Some of the presentations are listet below.
1. Project presentation
2. Reporting practice I
3. Reporting practice II
Read the first report from the SADIS projekt here: Report in PDF format (Danish)
Grøn S. og Knudsen F. 'Betyder nationalitet noget for sikkerhed og anmeldelse af arbejdsulykker?' CMSS report series No. 1, May 2011.
Read the second report here: Report in PDF format
Grøn S. og Richter L. 'Navigating Safety'. Anden rapport fra SADIS. CMSS report series No. 2, January 2013
Read the third and final report here: Report in PDF format (Danish)
Ádám B., Rasmussen H.B., Grøn S., Richter L. og Knudsen F. 'Nationale forskelle i sikkerhed'. CMSS report series No. 3, August 2013