A staff member from the legal risk management platform talks with crew members. [Photo/zhoushan.cn]

Zhoushan's Putuo district recently established a legal risk management platform for ocean-going ships to maintain public order at sea.

Nine departments and institutions in the district, including the people's procuratorate of Putuo district, helped build the platform and got involved in the inspection of ships' potential legal risks.

In the district there are 380 ocean-going ships. The overall output of them can rank among the best in the whole province and even the whole country, said officials.

However, according to local authorities, given the long operation time and high labor intensity among other factors, accidents, labor disputes and legal cases occur frequently.

Most crew members that are involved in legal cases know little about the law and a small number of crew members have psychological problems before they board the ship, and this may possibly lead to irreparable consequences when they encounter tough working conditions at sea, said Hu Sheng, an official from the local procuratorate.

Hu pointed out that the inspection of crew members' physical and mental health, interpersonal relationships and legal cases before the voyages can effectively protect ships from conflicts, disputes and crimes.

So far, over 50 ships from more than 10 ocean-going ship enterprises have been inspected, covering over 2,000 foreign and domestic crew members and the number of legal cases and labor disputes has decreased significantly, said officials.