Douglas: The secretary general of the shipmanagement trade association InterManager fears that seafarers will bear the brunt of the many ambiguities in incoming legislation.
Captain Kuba Szymanski, who has served as InterManager’s secretary general since 2010, tells Maritime CEO about his concerns over the incoming Maritime Labour Convention and the Ballast Water Convention.
“Both are entering into force and both have gaps,” he says. “Both are very needed but have not been acted upon with the right attention to details, and we are very concerned that it will be sea staff who will need to deal with gaps and ambiguities of those very important new legislations.”
Szymanski knows what he is talking about. He started his sea carrier in 1985 with Dorchester Maritime having graduated from Poland’s Maritime University of Szczecin. In 2001 he came ashore as a superintendent for the same shipmanager. Six years later he joined MOLTANK Ship Management in London as a general manager, before taking the InterManager post three years ago.
On other current concerns, the financial plight of many shipowners is uppermost in Szymanski’s mind.
“The financial situation of these principles – or customers – is shaping the everyday life of shipmanagers,” he says, adding: “Since 2008 the situation is not very rosy and this is having a serious effect on our members”
Sourcing and maintaining good quality staff at sea and ashore is another challenge facing members of InterManager. “The best companies embarked on all sort of loyalty programmes and engaged themselves in serious dialogue with their staff in order to retain the best,” notes Szymanski.
On education and training Szymanski says principles are cutting training budgets but shipmanagers know very well that only high quality, loyal and well trained sea staff are able to provide sustainability, therefore crew and shipmanagers have to find ways of training and educating present and future workforce.”
InterManager was founded in 1991 originally under the name ISMA – International Ship Managers’ Association. The idea behind the association was to improve standards in shipmanagement
It has a rotating two-year presidency, which currently sees the boss of Philippine Transmarine Carriers, Dito Borromeo, calling the shots. [30/05/13]
