Safety culture, working conditions and personal injuries in Norwegian maritime transport

Abstract

The aim of the study is to examine the influence of safety culture and working conditions on personal injuries and risk perception on vessels sailing along the coast of Norway (mostly bulk, well and general cargo). The study employs three methods: small-scale survey (N = 180) to crewmembers, reference group meeting and qualitative interviews with sector experts (N = 10). Results indicate that organisational safety culture, manning level on board, work pressure and demanding working conditions are closely related, and that these factors influence injuries and risk perception on the studied vessels. Analyses indicate that lower manning levels induce higher work pressure, which negatively influences safety culture. Respondents on vessels with lower manning levels (3–4 people) score lower on many of the key variables of the study: they experience more personal injuries, experience more stress, and rate the safety culture as lower than respondents on other vessels. It is not examined whether manning levels are too low. The safety challenges of vessels with lower manning levels are probably due to framework conditions (e.g. economy, competition). Future research should examine how to improve working conditions and safety culture on these vessels, given the current manning levels and framework conditions.