If a two-person crew is midway through a multi-day inland run, and the vessel is both workplace and home, where does a harassment report go — and who can investigate it without splitting the crew or leaving the boat short-handed? That is the practical question behind a new joint declaration from the European Barge Union (EBU), the European Skippers Organisation (ESO) and the European Transport Workers’ Federation (ETF).
The three organisations signed the declaration in Brussels on 21 October 2026. Maira van Helvoirt signed for EBU, Marjan Beelen for ESO and Livia Spera for ETF, according to the social partners’ announcement on inlandwaterwaytransport.eu. The declaration commits them to zero tolerance of violence and harassment, including gender-based violence, and builds on a 2018 joint declaration that focused on violence against women and LGBTQI workers, awareness raising and discrimination.
Commitment, not operating result
The declaration treats violence and harassment as risks to occupational health and safety. It calls for prevention measures, including training and the integration of those risks into workplace assessments. It also commits the social partners to promoting reporting systems that workers can access and trust, investigations carried out promptly, protection against retaliation, and support for victims — potentially psychological, medical and legal. It calls for standards tailored to the sector and for provisions in collective agreements. It also asks EU Member States that have not yet done so to ratify ILO Convention No. 190.
Those are commitments and proposals. The source does not report an actual operating result, such as a measured reduction in incidents, a new reporting rate, or a completed training programme. Nor does it set a deadline or name an indicator that would show whether the commitments change conditions on board. That distinction matters: a signed declaration is a starting point for implementation, not evidence that implementation has happened.
The 71.1% figure and its boundary
The declaration follows ETF’s 2026 survey on violence and harassment against women transport workers. Across transport modes, 71.1% of respondents said they had experienced violence or harassment in their current job. The source is explicit that the findings are not necessarily representative of inland waterway transport. That caveat is important. The figure is a cross-mode survey result, not an IWT-specific prevalence estimate, and the announcement does not give the sample size, the mode breakdown or the survey method.
So the number should not be used as a benchmark for barges. It also should not be read as a forecast of what would be found in inland navigation. It is a reported survey result from a wider transport population, offered by the social partners as context for the declaration.
Why the vessel-as-home setting changes the reporting problem
The source identifies conditions specific to inland waterway transport: vessels can serve as both workplace and home for extended periods, and small crews and isolation can limit access to external support. Those conditions shape what a reporting system has to do. A channel that works in a large terminal may not work on a vessel with limited connectivity. An investigation that assumes separate HR staff and a private room may not fit a small crew. Protection against retaliation is harder to guarantee when the person accused and the person reporting continue to share a confined working and living space.
The social partners say violence and harassment should never be treated as a normal part of the job. That is a clear position. The missing comparison is between that position and the operational detail: who receives a report, how quickly, with what support, and how the sector knows whether trust in the system improves.
Questions for the responsible operator
- Which reporting channel can a crew member use from a vessel with limited connectivity, and who receives the report?
- How is a prompt investigation handled when the crew is small and the vessel cannot easily stop?
- What training is provided, and how is it recorded in the workplace assessment?
- What psychological, medical or legal support is available, and who arranges it?
- Which collective agreement provisions or sector standards will cover this, and when?
- What indicator will the operator publish to show whether reports are being made and acted on?
The declaration gives the sector a shared reference point. It does not yet answer the question a small crew may face on the water. That answer will sit with operators, social partners and the monitoring arrangements they choose — and the source leaves those arrangements open.