There is a Japanese proverb that runs 'The nail that sticks up gets hammered down'. By contrast, there's a US proverb which extols the virtues of speaking up... 'It's the squeaky wheel that gets the grease'. I am sure that most senior officers on board will have been confronted with the issue of how to make your crew report any detected unsafe practice or condition - whether you call it 'speak up' or 'open reporting' or 'whistleblowing' (a term I personally dislike). But that is often easier said than done. We can all agree that the maritime environment is a place of high risk, where we hear daily about various accidents, either in the form of personal injuries/fatalities or environmental disasters. To make the industry a safer place, we need all the help we can get on board the vessels from all our crew members. There is not one single shipping company out there that does not have 'speak up' as a core policy. Which is all very well, and looks good on the posters in the messroom, but how does that work in reality?
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