The Role of Organised Labour

Abstract

The capacity and commitment required from employers to manage the health and safety of seafarers cannot be taken for granted. They are better understood as responses to the influences of both external and internal drivers. One important source of such influence comes from organised labour, which as we noted in the Introduction to this book, has been claimed to be ‘the essential factor central to most workplace health and safety improvements from the industrial revolution to the present’ (Abrams, 2001).