„Moře snese všechno…“

It takes a tough guy to find the courage to fight back against unlawful proceedings, on high seas. Jaroslav Hornof found such courage aboard a German-flagged ship, where he was a systems engineer. He found out that affluent water is routinely discharged into the sea and duly alerted his supervisor to the breach of environmental conduct and applicable legal standards. But his supervisor merely retorted it’s been so for the past thirty years and he is quite unprepared to do something about it. “The sea takes it all and nobody will notice,” the complaintant heard.

But Jaroslav Hornof would not settle for the rebuff. His secretly taped vide showed what happens to contaminated affluent and he warned his captain about an imminent breach of applicable laws. “I wanted the company to resolve the problem and put things right, but nothing happened,” the Czech seaman reports.

It is not easy to work on the board with a supervisor you have criticized for breaking the law and not anticipate what might happen to you on the lower deck. But eventually, the management of German company MST Mineralien Schiffahrt Spedition und Transport GmbH ordered an internal audit and US authorities stepped in, since the incident occurred in waters under their administration. The company was was charged with faking documentation about the disposal of ship waste. Jaroslav Hornof and his shipmates testified before an American court.

About 100 ship hands were sacked merely for being on the wrong ship at the wrong time, is all. Of course their wrath targeted Jaroslav Hornof. The world turned upside down for him and some other people. He says he has tried but failed to land a seaman’s job for a good year. Just because he lost what he might have earned as he bravely confronted a big shipping company. The US court proposed a financial compensation the size of which might be as high as 20 million CZK.

Jaroslav Hornof is a worthy whistleblower, one who alerts the public to unlawful practices. Shipside merchant navy officer Jaroslav Hornof acted the way anyone should. Sadly, the firm responsible for illegal conduct will pay the fine, but a hundred innocent employees have lost their jobs for executing their supervisor’s commands. But it is good to see people get rewarded for being brave and standing up against a seemingly invincible evil.

 

 

 

  Originální video záznam Jaroslava Hornofa z lodi Marguerita zde.

 Americký soud přiřkl odměnu Čechům, kteří upozornili na vypouštění oleje do moře (Euro.cz, 8.11.2018)

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