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      Call for Papers: Hierarchies of domesticity – spatial and social boundaries. Deadline for submissions is 30th September, 2024Full details can be read here.

      Articles to be no longer than 6,000 words (excluding footnotes and bibliography) and submitted in two forms: an anonymised version in which all references to the authors’ institution and publications are omitted; and a full version including the authors’ titles and institutional affiliations. For complete instructions on style, formatting, etc., please consult: https://www.plutojournals.com/wp-content/uploads/WOLG-Instructions-for-Authors2023.pdf 

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      Regressive safety practices in the globalised shipping industry

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      research-article
      Work Organisation, Labour and Globalisation
      Pluto Journals
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            Abstract

            The highly fragmented structure of the globalised shipping industry necessitates a regulatory-driven environment for its basic administration. This is a highly safety-critical industry, but regulatory updates only take place after an accident has taken place, based on a retrospective analysis of incidents and accident investigations. This leads to the goal of avoiding the recurrence of past incidents (and arguably newer occurrences too) through regulatory updates of the instruments of the International Maritime Organisation (IMO). This paper highlights the limitations of such an approach and shows how existing health and safety practices in the shipping industry are inadequate to cope with work environments that are changing rapidly as a result of economic and technological pressures. Paradoxically, while safety requires attention to how workers negotiate risks and uncertainties in everyday practice, in the contemporary shipping industry workers are increasingly denied the opportunities for socialisation, rest and organisational support that make such negotiation possible. As a consequence, interpretations of accidents by ‘experts’ as matters of human error by the crew acquire the status of fact, further compounding the disempowered position of workers. This leads to a general downward spiral in safety practices. The paper draws on an exhaustive review of the relevant literature as well as empirical evidence obtained from interviews. It critiques the current operational definition of safety in the industry and concludes that the progress the shipping industry believes it is making, mainly, at present, through technology integration, is tardy and may even be regressive and counterproductive.

            Content

            Author and article information

            Journal
            10.13169
            workorgalaboglob
            Work Organisation, Labour and Globalisation
            Pluto Journals
            1745641X
            17456428
            Summer 2014
            : 8
            : 1
            : 22-36
            Article
            workorgalaboglob.8.1.0022
            10.13169/workorgalaboglob.8.1.0022
            5ef169c8-d6ee-4deb-812c-c6e35d0b64f1
            © Suresh Bhardwaj, 2014

            All content is freely available without charge to users or their institutions. Users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles in this journal without asking prior permission of the publisher or the author. Articles published in the journal are distributed under a http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

            History

            Sociology,Labor law,Political science,Labor & Demographic economics,Political economics

            References

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