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Container ship in Wilhelmshaven: New compliance rules against attacks demanded
Photo: Ingo Wagner / picture alliance / Ingo Wagner/dpa
There is an uproar in the shipping industry over the high incidence of sexual harassment on merchant ships.
According to a survey by the Women's International Shipping & Trading Association of more than 1000 female seafarers from 78 countries, the Association of German Shipowners was appalled.
"The results are terrible," said the chairwoman of the Association of German Shipowners, Gaby Bornheim, the "Deutsche Verkehrs-Zeitung".
According to the survey, two-thirds of those surveyed said they had been harassed and intimidated by their male colleagues on board.
A quarter of the women also stated that physical and sexual harassment was the order of the day in shipping.
"The finding is terrible and must not be put into perspective under any circumstances," said Bornheim, who is the managing director of Peter Döhle Schiffahrts-KG.
Head of the Shipping Association Bornheim: "I know what I'm talking about"
Bornheim called on the companies to punish abusive behavior by men and not to play it down.
»Appropriate compliance regulations must be introduced.« Women should also be able to contact the relevant departments in the company via whistleblowing hotlines in a trusting manner without having to fear disadvantages.
"I know what I'm talking about," said Bornheim of the DVZ.
She had been exposed to salacious comments in her professional life.
If a woman has a male colleague in her department whose advances she doesn't reciprocate, then it often gets bad for the woman, said Bornheim.
You can confide in your superior – usually a man.
However, it is often not certain that she will get help from him.
'She can also look for a new job;
but why should it actually be the woman who feels compelled to even think about it,' said Bornheim.
Although preliminary proceedings are currently under way against Bornheim in connection with the illegal export of a scrap ship to India, she does not want to give up her position as VDR chairwoman.
You've thought it through - but decided against it, "because I know where I stand and how I have to assess it."
If there were any charges, she would think again.
The public prosecutor's office in Kiel is investigating whether Bornheim, as managing director, and the shipping company owners Christoph and Jochen Döhle helped bring the container ship of a Rendsburg company to Alang in the Indian state of Gujarat for scrapping.
All three are accused of being partly responsible for the export as an "intermediary broker", said Kiel's chief public prosecutor Henning Hadeler to the NDR.
apr/dpa
