Louisiana Maritime Law Blog

Dock workers face a lot of daily hazards on the job, and they need to take as many steps as possible to stay safe. This will not guarantee that accidents do not happen, but it may reduce the odds of an accident and/or the severity of that accident.

Below are three things that can help significantly:

• Put safety before productivity. It is sometimes less efficient to use safety equipment or have routine safety checks to look for hazards. However, rushing and cutting corners both lead to serious accidents. Safety must come first. It must be a priority.
• Give workers proper training. Even if a worker technically causes an accident, it may not actually be that worker's fault. Did they get proper training? Were they actually certified to use the tools they were using? Again, many companies prioritize production, so they want workers to get on the job as fast as possible. That can mean giving them inadequate training -- or none at all -- and that's when people get hurt.
• Focus on communication. A lot of accidents just happen because of simple communication mistakes. A worker does not know that heavy machinery is being used in the area and accidentally walks into a hazard zone, for instance. Workers have to be on the same page, and they have to communicate to keep each other safe.

If you are a seaman that has been injured or become ill, then you may have heard the terminology "maintenance and cure" thrown about. It essentially refers to your right to have your medical expenses covered by a shipowner if you're hurt on the job.

While the idea of maintenance and cure may sound like workers' compensation coverage, it's a little different from it. Under this doctrine, a shipowner is required to pay for a seaman's medical costs regardless of whether they were hurt or became ill on the job or somewhere else.

Many may think that working at sea would be far more dangerous than work in a shipyard. Sadly, that's often not the case. There are various aspects of wharf, shipping terminal, harbor or shipyard work that can be particularly hazardous.

One aspect of working in a harbor that makes workers particularly vulnerable to suffering injuries is that there is often no set schedule. Ships may need to be quickly repaired so that they can get back out to sea. Boats may need to have cargo taken off of them. They may arrive in a port at all hours of the day. A worker may end up spending long hours performing hard manual labor.

As hurricane season once again bears down on the Gulf Coast, those who work on offshore oil rigs are preparing for the worst and hoping for the best.

Technological advances allow meteorologists to more accurately predict the timing and path of storms than they could decades ago. This allows energy companies and others with oil platforms and other offshore facilities in the Gulf to more accurately determine at what point they need to evacuate their workers.