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CARGO GIANT IN BALTIMORE CRASH SILENCED WHISTLEBLOWERS  
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David Sirota, Helen Santoro, Freddy Brewster, Lucy Dean, Stockton,
Katya Schwenk
March 26, 2024
The Lever
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_ Regulators cited Maersk for its “illegal policy” blocking
employees from reporting safety concerns to the Coast Guard. _

Collision of the cargo ship Dali with the Francis Scott Key Bridge in
Baltimore, Maryland, on March 27, 2024., (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

 

The company that chartered the cargo ship that destroyed the Francis
Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore was recently sanctioned by regulators
for blocking its employees from directly reporting safety concerns to
the U.S. Coast Guard — in violation of a seaman whistleblower
protection law, according to regulatory filings reviewed by _The
Lever_.

Eight months before a Maersk Line Limited-chartered cargo ship crashed
into the Baltimore bridge, likely killing six people and injuring
others
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the Labor Department sanctioned
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shipping conglomerate for retaliating against an employee who reported
unsafe working conditions aboard a Maersk-operated boat. In its order,
the department found that Maersk had “a policy that requires
employees to first report their concerns to [Maersk]... prior to
reporting it to the [Coast Guard] or other authorities.”

Federal regulators at the Occupational Safety and Health
Administration, which operates under the Labor Department, called the
policy “repugnant” and a “reprehensible and an egregious
violation of the rights of employees,” which “chills them from
contacting the [Coast Guard] or other authorities without contacting
the company first.”

Maersk’s reporting policy was approved by company executives,
federal regulators found in their investigation into the incident. 

“[Maersk’s] Vice President of Labor Relations, admits that this
Reporting Policy requires seamen to report safety concerns to the
company and allow it time to abate the conditions before reporting to
the [Coast Guard] or other regulatory agencies,” Labor Department
investigators said in their report
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During their investigation into Maersk, federal officials said there
was “reasonable cause to believe” that the company’s policy
violated the Seaman’s Protection Act
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workers who speak out about unsafe working conditions. Officials
ordered the company to reinstate the employee and pay over $700,000
in damages
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back wages. They also demanded that Maersk revise its policy
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seamen to contact the Coast Guard about safety concerns before
notifying the company. 

The fired employee was a chief mate on the Safmarine Mafadi, a
Maersk-operated vessel, who also served as a relief captain when
needed. The seaman reported unrepaired leaks, unpermitted alcohol
consumption onboard, inoperable lifeboats, faulty emergency fire
suppression equipment, and other issues. 

Before he was fired, the employee was disciplined for not properly
maintaining the logbook and failing to properly follow orders. The
fired employee told federal regulators that he believed these
disciplinary actions were “retaliation for reporting alcohol
consumption on board the vessel.”

Maersk did not respond to _Lever_ questions about the Labor
Department’s findings and its previous policy on workplace safety
reporting ahead of publication. 

In a comment to other news outlets, Maersk stated
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“We are horrified by what has happened in Baltimore, and our
thoughts are with all of those affected. We can confirm that the
container vessel ‘DALI’, operated by charter vessel company
Synergy Group, is time chartered by Maersk and is carrying Maersk
customers’ cargo. No Maersk crew and personnel were onboard the
vessel. We are closely following the investigations conducted by
authorities and Synergy, and we will do our utmost to keep our
customers informed.”

Whistleblower Protection

The Seaman’s Protection Act was enacted in 1984 to protect maritime
workers who reported statutory violations to the Coast Guard from
company retaliation. These employees had been left out of other
whistleblower laws
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the time. In 2010, the legislation was amended to also safeguard
employees who refused to perform certain duties due to fears of
personal injury
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Enforced by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration,
companies that violate the Seaman’s Protection Act can be subject
to hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines
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The Coast Guard also encourages employees to “report any hazardous
condition before it results in a costly mishap.”

Despite the law explicitly protecting maritime employees from
workplace abuses including whistleblower retaliation, experts say
there have been relatively few whistleblower complaints. In 2017, a
case
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the Seaman’s Protection Act made it to the Supreme Court seeking to
protect a New York harbor worker, a “persistent safety advocate,”
who had been fired after reporting dangerous conditions, though the
court declined to hear the case.

Many maritime employers have a similar policy that prevents employees
from directly contacting the Coast Guard, or other regulatory
agencies, according to Eric Rhine, a lawyer specializing in maritime
injuries, aviation accident claims, and other issues at the
Spagnoletti Law Firm. 

In a blog post, Rhine highlighted a previous whistleblower
retaliation case
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found it was “‘standard business practice’ for employers to
prohibit any direct contact by employees with government regulatory
bodies.”

Rhine also highlighted that maritime employees, who face many work
hazards
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right to report unsafe conditions aboard their vessels to federal
regulators. 

“Sometimes accidents occur when they could have been avoided if
proper and reasonable care was taken by those responsible for safe
working conditions,” Rhine wrote. “These accidents can leave
employees with lasting impairment that prevents them from ever working
again. Of course, even worse, they can be deadly.”

Total Collapse

The vessel that crashed into the Baltimore bridge, ‘DALI’, was
chartered by Maersk and operated by Synergy Marine Group, a ship
management company based in Singapore. The ship had a crew of 22
foreign workers from India
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owned by Grace Ocean Private Ltd. and was headed to Sri Lanka.

Maersk, which is headquartered in Copenhagen, is one of the world’s
largest shipping companies, reporting more than $51 billion in revenue
in 2023. The company operates in 130 countries and employs 100,000
workers, according to its annual report. As of December 2023, Maersk
owned 310 ships and was chartering 362, which they say is one of the
world’s largest container shipping fleets.  

Since 2021, Maersk has spent $2.7 million lobbying
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and federal regulators on workers compensation, as well as port
congestion and infrastructure issues, among other concerns, regulatory
filings show.

Since last summer, Maersk has been battling the International
Longshoremen’s Association — a labor union that represents 65,000
maritime workers, including Maersk employees — over labor unrest at
a port in Alabama.

In August 2023, APM Terminals, a division of Maersk
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sued the union, claiming that workers at its Mobile, Alabama port were
on strike illegally during an active contract. The court case is
ongoing, and documents filed by the union in March allege that the
company illegally suspended six workers for “raising a concern about
a safety issue at the job site.”

As of publication time, rescuers have suspended the search
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six missing construction workers who were working on the Baltimore
bridge at the time of the collapse. The workers are presumed dead,
officials said. One body was reportedly recovered
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the river on Tuesday.

_David Sirota is editor-at-large at Jacobin. He edits the Lever and
previously served as a senior adviser and speechwriter on Bernie
Sanders’s 2020 presidential campaign._

_Helen Santoro is a journalist based in Colorado._

_Freddy Brewster is a freelance reporter and has been published in
the Los Angeles Times, NBC News, CalMatters, the Lost Coast Outpost,
and other outlets across California._

_Lucy Dean Stockton is the news editor at the Lever._

_Katya Schwenk is a journalist based in Phoenix, Arizona._

* Baltimore
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* Ship disaster
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* whistleblowers
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* suppression
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