August 23, 2022: Maersk Finally FIRES Captain Mark Stinziano

Via: ShippingWatch.com

Maersk fires captain due to harassment case from 2015

BY DAG HOLMSTAD

Published: 23.08.22 at 08:50

Once again, Maersk is releasing leading employees in the carrier’s US subsidiary, Maersk Line Limited, following cases of harassment.

In February this year, Maersk fired five employees for violating the company’s internal policies.

Now, Maersk confirms that ship captain Mark Stinziano, who has been suspended by US authorities since April 2022, has been dismissed.

The discharge officially occurred on Aug. 5, 2022, Maersk confirms in an email to Shippingwatch.

According to Maersk Line, the reason for the discharge is that Stinziano has given conflicting explanations in relation to a serious harassment case from 2015 aboard Maersk vessel Idaho.

When the case emerged in 2015, Stinziano provided his view on the matter in relation to Maersk’s internal investigation.

But when authorities in the shape of Administrative Law Judge Michael J. Devine treated the case previously this year and on April 20 decided to suspend Stinziano’s license to operate ships for 12 months – of these, four months were unconditional – it occurred on the basis of ”factual findings.”

But these factual findings from Judge Devine “are contrary to CM Stinziano’s statements to MLL in its 2015 initial investigation,” states Maersk Line in an email to ShippingWatch.

Was promoted to captain

Stinziano was chief officer at Maersk Line at the time of the harassment case in 2015 but was since promoted to ship captain. Stinziano was behind sexual harassments against a ship cadet and the second officer on Maersk Idaho.

The Maersk vessel was owned and operated by Maersk Line Limited and sailed under the US flag.

”Sexual harassment, sexism or any form of discrimination has no part in our culture or our values at Maersk. [...] As communicated to the entire Maersk and MLL fleet, we will not tolerate any breach of our policies regarding the fair treatment of all personnel,” reads the email from Maersk Line.

ShippingWatch has asked Maersk and Maersk Line why Stinziano was fired in August and not in April 2022, when the US Coast Guard suspended him unconditionally for four months.

The suspension ended on Aug. 20, 2022. Maersk has still not responded to this question.

But Judge Devine concluded in April 2022 that several of the claims directed by the US Coast Guard against Stinziano had not been proved or sustained by reliable witnesses during the case’s treatment.

Stinziano decision appealed to higher court

These were claims that Stinziano had committed gross sexual offences against a ship cadet and the second officer. The judge did, however, find that Stinziano had shown ”inappropriate conduct” when he was chief officer at Maersk vessel Idaho in 2014 and 2015.

As previously reported by ShippingWatch, the US Coast Guard has appealed the verdict, as the maritime authority believes Stinziano got off the hook too easily, and that Judge Devine had made several mistakes in the case.

”Appellant respectfully seeks the decision of the ALJ be vacated, modified or reversed and the appropriate order of revocation be issued,” wrote the US Coast Guard in the appeal motion from June this year.

It is unclear whether the appeal case, which has been handed over to a higher court in the form of the US Coast Guard’s Commandant, will now be dropped. According to ShippingWatch’s information, the case has still not been determined.

Stinziano case one of several at Maersk

The harassment case aboard Maersk Idaho is just one of several cases linked to Maersk in recent years.

In February this year, Maersk dismissed five employees after an internal investigation had been completed following reports that a US woman had been subject to attempted rape aboard one of Maersk’s ships.

The fired employees were the captain, the chief engineer, the first and second engineer as well as the third assistant engineer.

However, Maersk informed that it had not possible to find any evidence of rape.

Maersk fires five employees after investigation into assault case

”Because of Maersk Line Limited’s (MLL) [inability, -ed.] to talk with any of the involved parties in relation to the cadet’s claims of sexual abuse, MLL is not able to draw any conclusions with regards to the rape accusation,” Maersk wrote in a comment.

Nonetheless, the five employees were dismissed for violating the company’s alcohol policy and for failing to cooperate in relation to the investigation.

On June 12 this year, the Danish Broadcast Corporation (DR) reported the case of a 31-year-old ship’s cook who had received inappropriate text messages from her Maersk captain in 2021. To DR, Maersk’s Palle Laursen, chief of fleet, acknowledged that Maersk’s handling of the offence cases had not been good enough, and that the carrier has a problem with offending conduct among employees at sea.

On June 14, ShippingWatch reported that two women have sued Maersk at a court in New York, accusing the carrier of having failed to protect them when they were exposed to, respectively, rape and sexual offences at a Maersk ship in 2019 and 2021.