Intergalactic Summit

I am concerned about the Podpilots disconnect with the risk of the crews they hire or enslave for their ships

for Pod pilots who wish to guarentee the safety of their crew what can they do?

If they can not protect their crew's death, can they insure the support of their families financially from the loss of their primary income earner?

Well, the main thing I do to protect the crew of my ships is avoid getting my ship blown up.

Enslavement actually can have two levels there is typical Crack the whip and beat them with a stick slave where they are nothing but assets, or less than assets.

On the other hand some Amarr Masters, Treat them as their children. Making sure they are healthy and conform as apart of the family. They may not gain repsonibility of more than a Child, they are treated fairly

Here are some things you can do to make sure your crews are protected as much as possible.

1) Run regular drills for evacuation. Every ship has the potential to explode, and your crew needs to know how to get out. Sometimes, unfortunately, your ship will explode very suddenly, and so...

2) Run strong tanks. The longer it takes for the enemy to blow up your ship, the greater the chance your crew has to escape when it becomes clear that there is no chance to survive.

3) Cloning. The True Slave Foundations has technology and a mindset that allows us to make particularly strong use of cloning technology, and the Reawakening process. However, even non-Foundations capsuleers can provide clones to their crew. Sadly, with the limits of soft cloning, these crew will not have any memories they would have gained since their last backup, and the large number of crew on some vessels coupled with the prohibitive cost of current cloning technology makes this option unavailable or undesireable to many.

Federation designed vessels, also tend to use lots of automation leading to fewer crews required. Also, since I personally make a fair bit of isk off of creodron designs I have a secondary reason to advocate Gallente hulls.

None of these are really safer, and the ships explode much faster than would a combat vessel of the same size.

What makes you think people here are "overly" concerned?

The manufacturing process is safer. The shipping of those items, or the collection of raw materials, however, is not. Some capsuleers seem to delight in the destruction of these vessels even when there is no profit in it, or when the ship is not a military target.

I have only destroyed one mining barge in lowsec, yet between me and associates quite a few in highsec. Since i also help with industrial concerns of UMKFC, I can also add that our mining and manufacturing operations in nullsec and wormhole space have suffered the least capsuleer related attack. Our deployment of starbases while temporary in nature has also yielded the same results.

As counter intuitive as it may seem, low or nullsec is generally much safer for miners, as it is reasonable to stay at a starbase or station in the event other capsuleers are present however, in highsec population issues prevent this, making an easy target. This alone has changed Fan Club doctrine to use only t1 fit retrivers, battleships, and reprocessing to get minerals outside of stain or lowsec metropolis.

Good observations. I have authority to hire and train all of my crews, as well.
On my vessels every crewman is required to undergo a training course as well as regular drills, should they fail in either or have their performance degrade then they will be taken under consideration for dismissal from my service.
Among these:

1. Fire: Every crewman is instructed in firefighting in case it becomes necessary to save the ship from an imminent conflagration.

2. Vac suit operation: a given, in case they have to evacuate the ship by that method, or be in a situation that calls for vacuum conditions. Training is in use, maneuvering, and patch use to repair quickly.

3. Damage Control

4. Redundancy: every crewman is expected to know his/her job and that of their mate – as casualties from combat, other circumstances, or accidents can cause serious manpower problems. This is not such a problem on a Gallente ship due to its automation, but they are trained in this nonetheless.

I have taken part in these drills with my crewmen, as well, to the best of my limited ability to do so in person. My vessels are working ships, and as its commanding officer and capsuleer I do not ask that of my crewmen what I would not undertake myself.
There is also often a security detail aboard many of my vessels, when force of arms is needed onboard (for whatever reason.) Often the weapons that are employed are flechette-firing shotguns and low-velocity, heavy-caliber slugthrowers.