Attempts by independent tanker owners to promote effective guidelines on drugs and alcohol policies have upset the International Labor Organization (ILO).
Earlier this month, the International Association of Independent Tanker Owners (Intertanko) of Oslo offered the entire shipping industry its guidelines for tanker companies' drug and alcohol policies.
ADVICE ON TESTING
One of the key elements of the Intertanko guidelines is advice on testing for drugs and alcohol, which says the organization must be fair and reasonable and respect the dignity of individuals.
Personnel with problems should be offered help rather than automatic dismissal. Intertanko also proposed a self-help system for crew members while at sea.
Guidelines for tanker owners, which were well received in the shipping industry, did not impress the ILO. It has written to Tormod Rafgard, Intertanko managing director, claiming the document focuses excessively on testing. ILO said the guidelines give the impression that testing is the only effective program to reduce drug and alcohol problems in the workplace.
ILO's attack on Intertanko came just as a specialist committee set up by the International Maritime Organization (IMO) was about to discuss drug and alcohol abuse at a meeting on standards for training, certification, and watchkeeping.
The U.S. is keen for IMO too, promote drug and alcohol abuse policies internationally along the lines of those in force in U.S. waters as a result of the Oil Pollution Act of 1990.
However, IMO, like many intergovernmental bodies, is noted for its long decision making process.
Rafgard says the shipping industry cannot wait 2-3 years while the ILO or any other organization agrees on a drugs and alcohol policy. In the aftermath of the Exxon Valdez spill tanker owners are under pressure from charterers, notably international oil companies, to immediately put in place policies on drugs and alcohol.
Companies paying to use independently owned tankers want standards to apply to those vessels just as they do to oil company owned tankers. That includes' crew testing.
In the face of those demands, tanker owners have stepped up drug and alcohol testing.
A JOB FOR SPECIALISTS
Tanker owners are not expected to undertake the testing themselves. Intertanko thinks this is a job for independent medical specialists.
At the end of last year one of the best known names in shipping classification, Det norske Veritas, Oslo, joined forces with a British clinical pathology laboratory, J.S. Pathology plc, to offer a urine analysis service.
The venture, JSP Veritas, and the Intertanko guidelines reflect a new order in the shipping business that cannot wait for deliberations of the IMO and educational hopes of the ILO.
Copyright 1992 Oil & Gas Journal. All Rights Reserved.
