The Management
In 2011, the CSIC Council plan for Equality was created, including measures to fight violence against women. The government cites this plan to argue that its stance against sexual abuse—significant within the oceanographic fleet affiliated with the institution, where twelve complaints were filed between 2019 and 2023, a fact reported by Faro de Vigo—remains firm. Yet, as the government itself has acknowledged in writing, what the Equality Plan actually accomplishes can be undermined by the collective bargaining agreement governing each ship. In practice, women who experience abuse or harassment end up unprotected, as in the case of Carmen Fernández from Cangas, born 1980, who disappeared aboard the García del Cid last September after reporting an assault by another crew member in 2019. Although the plan includes the possibility of transferring employees when abuses occur, Carmen was denied this option because her ship’s own agreement does not include such a provision. The García del Cid’s collective agreement, registered in Barcelona under code 0807741, dates from 2010 and remains in effect.
“She asked to change ships to avoid returning to the same place,” explains Diego Leis, the family’s attorney. “They said it couldn’t be done, that her position was tied to that ship.” He describes this as an excuse. “What sense does a harassment protocol make if you can’t relocate someone?” After filing the complaint, the case was closed in 2020 by a settlement. She would be on leave for two years, during which the accused remained aboard. The family cannot know what environment she faced upon return. Just six days after the García del Cid left port for a coordinated research campaign with the Institut de Ciències del Mar in Barcelona, and seven days after encountering the accused, Carmen disappeared. She left a note expressing her distress about returning to a ship where she had been harassed. “If you don’t find me, I’ve thrown myself overboard. I love you all.” Carmen, a 43-year-old deck crew member with three children, never had the chance to tell her story in person beyond the note.
Leis notes that, based on numbers admitted by the Ministry of Science, those twelve harassment complaints over four years—five ending in disciplinary files, with no dismissals—paint a picture of a culture of harassment aboard. The family has requested a full investigation into what happened. The decision to deny Carmen a different ship, despite a government emphasis on avoiding revictimization of women who report abuse, raises serious questions. The government has spoken publicly about safeguarding victims, but the older ship-specific contract appears to have kept the problem at sea rather than solving it. The claim that the Equality Plan supersedes older agreements is undermined by the fact that the current agreement is more than a decade old and predates the plan. The lone direct mention of women in the contract states that pregnant women and young children under 14 cannot be enrolled, underscoring the gaps in protections that exist in practice.
Efforts to address the situation continue. The family’s lawyer has filed an appeal against a court decision to close the case in Gandía. The case hinges on the need for further judicial diligence, including statements from more crew members who were aboard. The captain of the García del Cid was contacted only via messaging app to explain the timeline of the accused’s presence on the ship; the captain said the man had been on the vessel for about 24 hours, left during a port stop in Barcelona after feeling sick. The opposing side contends that this version was not cross-checked with the accused, as there was no formal interrogation of him. The lawyer contends that all colleagues should be summoned to testify in court to determine if anything happened, when Carmen and the accused were aboard together, and how she was treated on the ship. If the Valencian Provincial Court does not respond to the appeal, the family may pursue other judicial avenues to clarify how the CSIC was managed and to seek a transparent accounting of what happened aboard the García del Cid.
In short, the case illuminates a broader concern: the tension between national policies on gender equality and the enforceability of collective agreements at sea. It spotlights the real-life consequences for women who report harassment and the urgent need for consistent enforcement of protections across all ships and crews. It also underscores the necessity of independent, thorough investigations when a crew member disappears after such allegations. The pursuit of truth continues, with the family seeking comprehensive judicial statements from all crew members and a clear, accountable record of the ship’s environment during Carmen’s time on board. This is not just a legal matter but a human one, touching on dignity, safety, and the right to work without fear of retaliation.