Dockers finally have a code for lashing safely on container ships, writes Albert Le Monnier

Containerization has been with us for a good 50 years now and with its growth, we’ve also seen a corresponding decrease in the handling of general cargo. In the most recent estimate, approximately 600 million movements from ship to dock or vice versa were carried out using some 200 million containers. These containers are shipped around the world, mostly by purpose-built container ships.

What is the problem with lashing on board container ships?

Dockers have faced an ever-increasing list of injuries and fatalities while lashing these containers on deck. International Cargo Handling and Coordination Association recently conducted an international survey and concluded that between 31 and 40 percent of all injuries at container port facilities occur aboard ships during lashing operations.

Yet, as astonishing as it may seem, only now has a tentative agreement been reached to add this issue to the safety code for cargo at the International Maritime Organization (IMO), a United Nation organization that deals with all global maritime issues (see box below).

What are the health and safety issues for dockers?

In many instances ships are designed and built to maximize the deck space for containers, with little regard for lashing safety and efficiency. In some cases, no space is provided at the outer edges of the hatches to stand on. Somehow lashers are expected to levitate in thin air.

In other cases, if platforms are provided, guardrails to keep a worker from falling in the water, deck or on the dock are absent or damaged.

The lashing equipment is often ill-designed, with 30kg lashing bars slipping out from container corner fittings.

Many of the semi-automatic twist locks fall off from their bottom corner fittings, placing workers below at great risk due to bad design and/or maintenance.

At night, if the crane is working another bay, lashers may be left lashing in almost complete darkness.

As part of their duties lashers may, in some ports,  have to plug in reefer containers with very poorly designed and maintained electrical outlets risking potential electrocution every time.

What has the ITF and its affiliates done to campaign for better safety provisions?

Unions have played a key role in achieving the new safety provisions for dockers.

Container safety was identified as a matter of priority by the ITF dockers’ section conference and committees.

We gathered information directly from workers who deal with these issues every day, by speaking to senior lashers and foremen stevedores from Canada’s West Coast and the Port of Felixstowe in the UK.

The ITF took these issues to the IMO, through its membership of the international safety panel, an advisory group.

The information from dockers was fed directly into the text of the new annex. The section safety committee actually wrote some of the clauses in the text. Some of the more contentious items required a great deal of advocacy, through correspondence and at meetings of the sub-committee dealing with the issues.

We also took many photographs to demonstrate the flaws and dangers to the working group.

What solution has been reached?

Health and safety starts at the design stage of container ships. The UK delegation took the initiative at the IMO maritime safety committee to get these issues on the agenda.
The code outlines a detailed set of design provisions that will make it safer for dockers who have to handle containers.
The design provisions that don’t require altering major structures of the ship will come into effect one year after approval (May 2011). Structural requirements that can be addressed only on new ships will be effective from 1 January 2015.
The code also addresses safety at the operational and maintenance level.
What role can unions continue to play?
Unions will need to play a role in monitoring the operational and maintenance procedures outlined in the code. These are aimed at both ship and terminal operators, and require a vessel pre-inspection prior to lashing operations commencing. 
Unions must be fully involved in the pre-inspection process. Bins should be available to put aside bad order equipment.
A training and familiarization program for lashers should, of course, be in place. The annex recognizes that safe lashing must be carried out in pairs only, another issue we must monitor as unions.
The safety annex still has to be approved by the maritime safety committee in May 2010. We see no reasons why this shouldn’t happen but will have to be diligent in making sure it is approved.
We are urging dockers’ unions to get involved in safety issues, as there’s a lot coming up at the international safety Panel:

• Convention for safe containers: we hope work on this will strengthen the container examination schemes, which are currently woefully lacking.
• Timber deck cargo code: this is being reviewed and needs our attention.
• A training convention for dockers: the International Labour Organization is about to start developing this convention.
• A review on container staffing guidelines is also starting soon.

All these initiatives directly affect our safety. They are mostly being developed through electronic correspondence and that is precisely what makes it possible for affiliates, through the ITF, to be directly involved in the consultation process. I strongly urge and invite all dockers’ unions to participate by getting in touch with the ITF dockers’ section safety committee.
The addition to the safety code is a great step forward for unions and our dockers, but this is just the start of our work, not the end.

Albert Le Monnier is 3rd Vice President of ILWU Canada and was approved by the dockers’ section to represent the ITF Dockers Section at the International Safety Panel, an advisory group to the IMO.

The details The new safety code for container lashing is an annex to the Code of Safe Practice for Cargo Stowage and Securing (CSS Code), and is titled “Guidance on providing safe working conditions for securing of containers”. It was reached at the dangerous goods, solid cargos and containers sub-committee (DSC) of the International Maritime Organization (IMO). The 14 page annex covers: 1- An introductory section that includes an aim, scope, definitions and general assignment of responsibilities. 2- Specific detailed design criteria for work area access, lashing positions design, lashing system design, lighting guidelines, reefer plugging design. 3- Operational and maintenance procedures. The annex covers all ships specifically designed and fitted for the purpose of carrying containers on deck, with the aim of ensuring that all workers have safe access, safe equipment and a safe place of work.