3.1 Executive Management commitment and leadership.
Executive management commitment and leadership is a precondition for
an effective SOHSP. Executive management commitment and leadership
includes, but is not limited to: (a) integrating occupational health
and safety into the management structure and fabric of the company;
(b) developing an occupational health and safety policy; (c) developing
occupational health and safety objectives; (d) providing resources
to achieve the objectives; (e) defining stewardship responsibilities,
and providing authority to carry out those responsibilities, and (f)
establishing accountability for occupational health and safety as
a part of job performance reviews. Further guidance is provided in
appendix 1.
3.2 Employee participation. Employees from all
levels including crew members, officers, masters, persons in charge,
and shore-side personnel should be directly involved with the SOHSP.
Shipboard and shore-side employees should be involved in developing,
implementing, evaluating, and modifying the SOHSP. Employees should
also participate in setting occupational health and safety objectives
and performance criteria. This involvement might be through employee
membership on safety committees that provide input to management for
the development of occupational health and safety policy, debate and
set occupational health and safety goals, measure and evaluate performance,
and recommend modifications to the programme based on their evaluation.
Shore-side and shipboard employees should work together to achieve
occupational health and safety goals. For example, shore side personnel
should participate on vessel safety committees since their decisions
affect vessel operations and ultimately the occupational health and
safety of vessel personnel. In large companies, individual vessel
safety committees might submit recommendations to an overarching safety
committee that evaluates the recommendations and sets policy to apply
appropriate recommendations to the entire fleet. Further guidance
is provided in appendix 2.
3.3 Hazard anticipation, identification, evaluation
and control. The core function of any occupational health and safety
programme is prevention. Occupational health and safety hazards including
fire, reactivity, chemical and physical hazards need to be anticipated
and prevented from occurring. Hazards and unsafe operating procedures
need to be identified and addressed so they will not endanger employees
or the public, and will not damage the vessel, cargo or third party
property. Potential hazards should be systematically anticipated,
identified, evaluated and controlled. Tools such as job hazard analysis,
industrial hygiene exposure assessments, and risk assessment/management
methodologies enable the evaluation and control of hazards. Further
guidance is provided in appendix
3.
3.4 Training. Employees should receive training
appropriate for their duties and responsibilities so that they may
work safely and not endanger their shipmates or the public. In addition,
employees who have specific occupational health and safety responsibilities
(generally supervisors with responsibility for the safety of others,
but also non-supervisors who are assigned to safety committees or
as crew member representatives) should receive training to enable
them to carry out their occupational health and safety programme responsibilities.
Further guidance is provided in appendix
4.
3.5 Record keeping. Company records sufficient
to demonstrate the effectiveness of the occupational health and safety
programme should be maintained. Data that enables trend or pattern
analysis for root causes is particularly desirable. For example, results
of audits that evaluate effectiveness of the occupational health and
safety management programme should be maintained. Records that indicate
industrial hygiene exposure assessments have been conducted and appropriate
controls have been implemented should be maintained. Current job safety
analyses and corresponding standard operating procedures with safe
work practices should be documented. Injury and illness data should
be maintained to enable the identification of trends and patterns
that associate the injury or illness with a common cause, which can
be addressed. Training topics, lesson outlines and attendees should
be documented. Where appropriate, such records should permit evaluation
of the programme on individual vessels as well as across an entire
fleet. Further guidance is provided in appendix 5.
3.6 Contract or third party personnel. When contract
or third party personnel are on board to perform work, vessel personnel
should provide information regarding potential hazards on the vessel
that may affect the contract or third party personnel. Potential hazards
related to the work conducted by contract or third party personnel
should be provided to the vessel owner/operator and/or the master/person-in-charge.
Each employer should provide appropriate information regarding vessel
and work hazards to their own employees. For example, exchange of
information on chemical hazards might be accomplished by exchanging
appropriate safety data sheets (SDS), then each employer can inform
their own employees of the hazards identified in the SDS. Further
guidance is provided in appendix
6.
3.7 Fatality, injury, illness and incident investigation.
Personnel injuries, occupational illnesses, and “near miss”
incidents should be promptly investigated. The current incident and
other similar occurrences should be analysed to identify the primary
(root) cause and any contributing factors. The investigation report,
setting forth primary cause, contributing factors, and corrective
measures should be presented to management. Follow up action which
specifically addresses the report's recommendations for corrective
action should be undertaken and documented. Further guidance is provided
in appendix 7.
3.8 Systematic programme evaluation and continuous
improvement. Maintaining an effective occupational health and safety
programme is an ongoing process. The SOHSP should have systems for
detecting, reporting, and correcting non-conformities to the programme.
Some type of “formalized” evaluation should also be conducted
on a periodic basis consistent with other aspects of the vessel's
management plan. The evaluation should determine whether the SOHSP
is appropriate for the vessel and its operations, that actual practices
are consistent with the programmes and procedures in the SOHSP, and
that the SOHSP is effective. Comparison of data and records (refer
to appendix 5, Record keeping)
to performance objectives and criteria (refer to appendix 1, paragraph 3, health
and safety objectives) can provide important indicators of the effectiveness
of the SOHSP. Further guidance is provided in appendix 8.