Premise

 

Fishing is a sector for which the European Parliament has requested greater safety, with particular attention for training, professional training and resorting to the most modern technologies for rescue devices.

A variety of international conventions and recommendations regulate this sector, provided above all by the ILO and the IMO, however they are not all currently fully implemented. European Union legislation is no better with two provisions on safety onboard fishing vessels that however together only deal with 11% of this sector.

The national maritime fishing sector has recently been the object of legal adjustments, with the coming into force of Legislative Decree no. 271 dated July 27th 1999, concerning the health and safety of seamen embarked on national merchant fishing vessels and the 1999 Legislative Decree no. 298, implementing the EU provision 93/103/EC concerning minimum safety and health requirements for work onboard fishing vessels.

Very recent legislation involves a few interpretative problems for those who work in this sector.

Initially help for solving a number of implementation problems, in the form of the new Technical Committee as established in Article 30 of Legislative Decree 271/99, can certainly be found in the specific Guidelines for the application of the aforementioned decree, which are the result of the synergic work of all subjects involved.

 

For this reason ISPESL’s Documentation, Information and Training Department, has cooperated with the CNR ISMAR in Ancona, ASL 7 Ancona PSAL Service, ASL 12 in S. Benedetto del Tronto Servizio PSAL and ASL 9 from the Grosseto PSAL service working group, to elaborate a proposal for “Guidelines for the implementation of Legislative Decree 271/99 in the fishing sector” currently being assessed by the Regions’ and Autonomous Provinces’ Technical Committee for Prevention in the Workplace.

Among the various chapters into which the guidelines are drafted, one concerns the criteria and orientations to be followed for providing effective and efficient training.

 

Proposed criteria for correct training was processed considering:

 

-         -         specific data and information for the sector such as:

 

-         -         training needs arising from all indicated in Legislative Decree 271/99 and Legislative Decree 298/99;

-         -         indications contained in the European Community’s document entitled “Training on the subjects of health and safety in the fishing sector” (1993);

-         -         statistic data on accidents;

-         -         sector studies;

-         -         the economic and organisational framework of the professional fishing sector in Italy;

-         -         further information deriving from the direct development of knowledge regards to: the working cycle, shifts, fishing machinery and equipment, work organisation, working modalities, the workplace, specific risks etc,  thanks to embarkation onboard fishing vessels;

-         -         the information contained in Risk Assessment documents;

-         -         indications arising from interviews with privileged players (fishermen, skippers, shipowners) on: the work force, aspects of this work, accidents, information and training, health and lifestyle aspects, social aspects etc .The cognitive survey was achieved by creating, distributing and processing a specific questionnaire in fishing communities in the Central Adriatic region (Ancona, Fano and Senigallia), in Mazara del Vallo and the will soon be distributed to a number of fishing communities on the Liguria coast.

 

-         -         indications present in documents, standards and provisions, although currently not in force because not ratified or not applicable to the fishing sector, represent however a uselful reference for good technical provisions, such as:

 

-         -        the indications contained in Document no. 3 Guidelines for Title I “Training of workers according to Legislative Decree 626/94 criteria and orientations” drafted by the Technical Committee for Prevention of the Regional and Autonomous Provinces’ Councillor’s Offices for Health;

-         -         the indications contained in Ministerial Decree 16/1/97 “Minimum contents in training for seamen, safety representatives and employers”;

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-         -         the indications contained in the European Community’s document “Training in the workplace safety and health sector” (1992);

-         -         The ILO’s “Fishermen’s Competency Certificates Convention” no. 125 (1966) , the IMO Convention for “Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Fishing Vessel Personnel” (STCW-F 1995), international standards ;

-         -         “Document for Guidance on Training and Certification of Fishing Vessel Personnel” by FAO/ILO/IMO (edition 2001), The ILO’s “Vocational Training (Fishermen) Recommendation” no. 126 (1966) , international guideline documents for training workers onboard fishing vessels;

-         -         Current provisions and regulations in force in Italy concerning minimum requirements for seamen’s training and certification. These provisions derive from the ratification (with Law 739/85) of the STCW Convention (Standard of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping) and later amendments.

 

Information has been processed considering the particularity of the fishing sector in Italy: a fleet fragmented in a large number of small vessels, the fleet’s high average age, the many fishing systems used, labour organisation and extremely differentiated technological levels, etc.

 

To receive from users all useful indications and suggestions for improving them, general contents concerning training are in the Figures section of the Training box.