Working Conditions On Maritime Transport: Comparative Survey BetweenGalician Professionals And Spanish Shipping Companies

Abstract

[Abstract] The last report on the evolution of maritime workforce published by BIMCO in 2010 places the offi-cers’ current deficit in almost 14000. This data shows a trustworthy and growing problem of shortageof qualified personnel to work on board. Nowadays the Spanish shipping companies are reporting anincreasing difficulty to recruit Spanish experienced seafarers in the last years. There exists a seriesof determinant factors in the reduction of the number of persons who follow the maritime career: theslightly attractive image of the merchant marine, the complexity of the seafarer professional career, andthe increasing hardness of life on board. The main objective of the present paper is to compare theprofessionals’ opinions about working and living conditions on board and those offered by shippingcompanies, and desired seafarers’ qualifications. The aim is to know the degree of satisfaction of pro-fessionals and shipping companies with several aspects of maritime profession. With such a purpose aquestionnaire on working and living conditions on board was designed and distributed among graduatesfrom the Higher Technical College of Nautical Science and Marine Engineering from University of ACoru ̃na and Spanish shipping companies. The results were compared and shown that there are importantdifferences between the professionals’ expectations and the real employment conditions. This could bethe main reason why many professionals decide to abandon their jobs at sea Job instability, workinghours distribution, workload, and work-life balance conditions are problematic areas for professionals.The important difficulties to hire qualified personnel to work on board are the shipping companies’ mainconcern.