InterManager Urges Fatigue Regulations to Reflect Sea Realities

Fatigue remains one of the greatest threats to safety at sea, industry body InterManager warns, calling for a revision of STCW (International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers), smarter digital tools and realistic manning levels to tackle a system that makes compliance “almost impossible”.

Fatigue has long been recognised within the maritime sector, but InterManager argues it remains incorrectly framed as an individual failing rather than a structural safety threat that demands regulatory and operational reform.

In a paper authored by Secretary General of InterManager, Kuba Szymanski, the association sets out the realities that ship managers and seafarers face: compressed crews, rising administrative burdens and mounting operational pressures that make compliance with hours‑of‑rest rules unachievable in practice. 

“The uncomfortable truth is that the system we have built makes genuine compliance almost impossible - and everyone in the industry knows it”.

Szymanski highlights that an ever‑greater volume of regulation, inspections, reporting obligations and environmental duties has not been matched by increased manning, meaning seafarers frequently work past fatigue thresholds in order to complete essential tasks. 

The paper reports that rest records are often falsified to show compliance, a symptom of a system that prioritises paperwork over people. 

“A seafarer cannot rest if the job is not done”.

Central to Szymanski’s recommendations is a call for the STCW Convention, last updated in 2010, to be revised to reflect modern operational realities. The association stresses that rules written for a different era leave ship operators and crews balancing impossible choices between safety and compliance. 

“Fatigue must be treated as a structural risk, not an individual failing,” Szymanski writes.

The association remains sceptical about the current wave of digital initiatives, many of which add administrative tasks rather than easing workload. 

While automation and electronic monitoring are frequently presented as remedies, Szymanski warns that poorly designed systems simply create more work. Digitalisation must be “human‑centric” and genuinely reduce duplication and free seafarers from needless data entry.

The paper says falsification of rest hours evidences a culture that values the appearance of compliance over honesty, and urges regulators to create an environment in which seafarers can report fatigue without fear of reprisal. 

Ship managers should be treated as partners in reform rather than targets for blame. “Ship managers deserve support, not criticism,” Szymanski insists.

Szymanski says the revision of STCW offers a timely opportunity to modernise safe‑manning rules, set realistic rest standards and drive a new generation of digital tools tailored to crew needs. The paper urges press owners, regulators, and technology providers to collaborate on reforms that place human safety at the centre of operational design.

“Fatigue is not a weakness to be managed by individuals. It is a system‑wide issue that demands system‑wide reform,” Szymanski concludes. 

The industry’s challenge now is to accept that reality and move from rhetoric to practical, enforceable measures that protect crews and restore confidence in compliance.

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