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The purpose of this paper is to examine the ways in which workers employ rule breaking, rule bending and deviations from management defined norms in the workplace and the impact this has on their occupational health and safety (OHS) experiences.

The paper uses qualitative semi-structured interviews conducted with 37 seafarers working on board four vessels engaged in international trade. The data were recorded, transcribed and thematically analysed using NVivo software.

The findings indicate that seafarers utilised workplace fiddles – which included rule breaking, rule bending and deviating from management defined norms – in order to engender a workable system in which they could remain safe but also profitable to those who controlled their labour. Moreover, the findings suggest that shore-side management deflected the responsibility for rule violations by deferring many of the decisions regarding features of life on board – such as the scheduling of work hours – to the senior officers on board.

The paper sheds light on where, in practice, responsibility for OHS lies in the international shipping industry, an industry in which workers experience relatively high rates of work-related fatalities, injuries and mental health conditions.

The purpose of this paper is to present the ways in which underlying social and organisational factors and employment relations underpin the practice of incident reporting in the international shipping industry.

The paper uses a qualitative case study method involving field trips to two shipping organisations and sailing on research voyages on two ships of each of the organisations. It draws on empirical data using semi‐structured interviews, notes from fieldwork observations and documentary analysis of company policies, procedures and practices.

In the two companies studied there were significant gaps between the policy and practice of incident reporting, which were present primarily due to the employees' fear of losing jobs. It is shown that these findings were manifestations of deeper sociological issues and organisational weaknesses in the shipping industry. In particular ineffective regulatory infrastructure, weak employment practices, the absence of trade union support and lack of organisational trust were the key underlying concerns which made incident reporting notably ineffective in the shipping context.

While the weaknesses in the practice of incident reporting in the shipping industry were reported in the past, previous studies did not offer further explanations. This paper addresses the gap and provides another illustration of the need for looking into deeper sociological underpinnings for practices in the workplace. The author also hopes that the study will have a positive impact on policy makers in the shipping industry.