CREW
WELFARE
Promoting fair, clean and inclusive shipping
The Unicrew Management family consists of sea-going and shore-based people bound together by their commitment to delivering excellence in the pursuit of better business outcomes. Everybody participates in this shared goal, which makes the well-being of each member of the family elemental in the collective effort. Naturally then, our welfare benchmarks stretch beyond ensuring crew health onboard, adequate rest and recreation facilities and communication with families back home. It is about ensuring crew human rights and happiness, as well as a work-life balance. Underlying all these concerns are the protection of the lives and livelihood of our crew, no matter what conditions prevail onshore. The 2020 pandemic was a major test for our welfare policy of putting the crew above all other concerns. Crew change had to be ensured in a safe and organised manner, keeping in mind that those who were delayed in repatriation were not subject to endless hours of duty on board. If we were to just revisit the tenets of the Maritime Labour Convention, crew welfare involves ensuring decent work and living conditions on board, health protection, medical care, welfare measures, and other means of social protection for every seafarer. Today in particular, that means priority vaccination, access to safe travel and smooth transit.
Sustainability is embedded in our policy framework
Crew welfare means different things to different people. Does it mean crew safety, health and well-being at sea, or should seafaring crew be seen through the welfare parameters that apply to workers on shore? Unicrew Management is adopting policies and practices that enhance safety and wellbeing on board while actively addressing issues such as adequate shore leave, minimizing unannounced and sudden contract extensions, reducing duty time and onboard fatigue, facilitating frequent contact with family back home and assuring job security. Our need for consistently delivering tangible welfare outcomes to our crew extends to the families of the seafarers as well. For Unicrew seafarers who had financial, emotional, or health concerns, we offered timely support to seafarer’s families through the offices of our local manning partners in the Philippines, Romania, Croatia, Montenegro and other markets. We were able to get all our Sea Cloud crew vaccinated in time for the late summer restart of voyages. In early 2021, we signed the Neptune Declaration on Seafarer Wellbeing and Crew Change in response to the crew change crisis to help raise awareness of the problem and urge governments to take immediate steps to protect the rights and welfare of seafarers. We cannot ignore the fact that people are our first priority.
Get in Touch
Unicrew Management Limited
10 Hornsby Square
Southfields Business Park
Basildon, Essex
SS15 6SD, United Kingdom
