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, the Labor Department sanctioned the 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.”

    • Aniki 🌱🌿@lemm.ee
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      6 months ago

      It’s givesomefucks so while they are wrong 99.999% of the time, this time, they are right.

      You realize that Maersk is one of the largest shipping companies in the world, right?

      • protist@mander.xyz
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        6 months ago

        There’s 100% going to be a serious civil and criminal investigation into this. Both of those are going to take a long time. Meanwhile Biden pledging to rebuild the bridge as fast as possible is absolutely the right thing to do. Givesomefucks cynically claiming “Biden bad” for this incident that happened yesterday is just not based in reality

        • Aniki 🌱🌿@lemm.ee
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          6 months ago

          It’s a cynical hot-take but history has shown that the Whitehouse [GOP and neolibs alike] usually does bail out the multi billion dollar conglomerates so historically speaking, they are probably right.

          • protist@mander.xyz
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            6 months ago

            But there isn’t even any reason to think Maersk needs a bailout right now. We have no idea what went wrong with the ship that sent it adrift. And Maersk has insurance that is likely going to be paying a pretty penny in damages to the families of the people who died, the State of Maryland, and other injured parties, and even after that they have incredibly deep pockets

            • Aniki 🌱🌿@lemm.ee
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              6 months ago

              The “bailout” will come when the bill for the bridge needs to be paid. Mark my words, I’ll consume a shoe if taxpayers pay nothing.

              • MagicShel@programming.dev
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                6 months ago

                Maersk will, of course, be fine. Their “independently owned” subsidiary responsible for maintenance might have to shutter until they can file the paperwork to recreate it with a new name and the same “standard” policies and “experienced” people.

                I don’t know if this resembles their cooperate structure, but one thing I do know is that the company and it’s shareholders will not suffer any significant inconvience.