Description

Guidelines on Fatigue, 2019 Edition 

This publication is a guide to the nature of fatigue and its causes. It outlines preventative measures and countermeasures designed to help combat fatigue on board the ship. 

Approved by the Maritime Safety Committee of the International Maritime Organization (IMO), the guidelines in this publication include modules addressing the issue of fatigue from different angles: the company, the seafarer, awareness and training, ship design, and the Administration and port State authorities. 

It includes examples of sleep and fatigue monitoring tools and fatigue event report information. 

The Maritime Safety Committee (MSC) of the International Maritime Organization (IMO), at its seventy-first session (19 to 28 May 1999), considered the issue of human fatigue and agreed to develop practical guidance to provide appropriate information on fatigue to all parties concerned. 

Consequently, at its seventy-fourth session (30 May to 8 June 2001), MSC approved MSC/Circ.1014 on fatigue mitigation and management guidance. 

At its ninety-fourth session (17 to 21 November 2014), MSC agreed to undertake a revision of the Guidance on fatigue mitigation and management and instructed the Sub-Committee on Human Element, Training and Watchkeeping (HTW) to conduct the review. 

Accordingly, at its 100th session (3 to 7 December 2018), MSC approved the Guidelines on Fatigue, finalized by the HTW Sub-Committee, at its fifth session (16 to 20 July 2018). They are composed of self-contained modules addressing the issue of fatigue from different angles: the company, the seafarer, awareness and training, ship design, and the Administration and port State authorities. 

In approving the Guidelines, IMO Member States were invited to: 

–– bring the Guidelines to the attention of their maritime Administrations and all stakeholders, including seafarers, companies, naval architects/ship designers and training providers; 

–– use the Guidelines as a basis for disseminating information on fatigue (for example, by means of pamphlets, video training modules, seminars and workshops); and 

–– take the Guidelines into consideration when determining minimum safe manning. 

Companies were strongly urged to consider fatigue when developing, implementing and improving safety management systems under the International Management Code for the Safe Operation of Ships and for Pollution Prevention (ISM Code). 

The Guidelines contained in this publication supersede the Guidance on fatigue mitigation and Management (MSC.1/Circ.1014), approved on 12 June 2001 and published in 2002 as the first edition of this book. 

Contents Listing:

Foreword 

List of acronyms and abbreviations 

Introduction 

Module 1 – Fatigue 

Module 2 – Fatigue and the Company 

Module 3 – Fatigue and the Seafarer 

Module 4 – Fatigue awareness and training 

Module 5 – Fatigue and ship design 

Module 6 – Fatigue, the Administration and port State authorities 

Appendix 1 – Examples of sleep and fatigue monitoring tools 

Appendix 2 – Example of fatigue event report information