P&O staff dismissed

[bazzaw]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/jul/01/arcadia-cruise-ship-indian-crew

[KarenR_UK]

wow - seems a bit harsh:(

[C at Sea]

Disgusting!

They probably promised there would be no come back so that they would go back to work. It would have caused major problems if they'd sacked them there and then! How crafty to wait until they were back home.

Makes you feel like slavery hasn't really been abolished!!

[wroughtironron]

I can't say I'm surprised that the staff are on minimum wages, and I expect that the terms apply to most cruise lines - you only need to see how many waiting staff are from "third world" countries.

 

It disturbed me when sailing with NCL in June, to see how many passengers were queuing on the last night to remove their $12 a day service charges.

[bazzaw]

 

It disturbed me when sailing with NCL in June, to see how many passengers were queuing on the last night to remove their $12 a day service charges.

 

This is all the cruiselines fault - not the passengers. Trouble is that the cruiselines are trying to be all things to all people - they should either pay ALL of their staff a proper wage (as they currently only do for SOME of their staff) and leave any tipping up to the passengers -- or make the automatic gratuity charge compulsory. To have a gratuity charge that is "voluntary" and which can be removed is a nonsense.

 

Barry

[terrierjohn]

I think this might be a bit of press stirring by the "Gruniad" just in time for the grand event. Remember the saying about do not believe everything you read in the Daily Mail, well it also applies to the Guardian, in fact in my opinion believe nothing you read in the Guardian.

[tartanexile81]

I think this might be a bit of press stirring by the "Gruniad" just in time for the grand event. Remember the saying about do not believe everything you read in the Daily Mail, well it also applies to the Guardian, in fact in my opinion believe nothing you read in the Guardian.

 

I don't believe everything I read in newspapers either but I'm afraid this story smacks too much of the truth as I have heard it from the horse's mouth. We love cruising but it does concern us how badly the staff, especially waiters and cabin stewards, are treated by the companies - and also by some passengers.

[Gold Coast Cruisers]

I do hope the new staff they have employed are still from India. I was told by a crew member recently who used to work on the Arcadia that all the crew are Indian and do work well together. P & O apparently want it that way because they all speak English well and that's what their guests want.

I personally like their attitude and they are easy to understand. Many other crew from other countries are so hard to understand and don't have the same attitude as the Indian staff do.

Jilly:)

[nw_man]

http://www.cruiselawnews.com/2012/07/articles/crew-member-rights-1/carnival-fires-150-crew-members-from-india-for-protesting-low-cruise-ship-wages/index.html

 

Further info here.

 

P&O pay 75 PENCE an hour to their waiters.

[alvin moondust]

Perhaps you might consider what all those Indians would be doing for a living if they were in their home villages, Dont want to generalise but i got the impression from talking to our brfilliant steward and a few other staff that they enjoyed the work they were doing.

[Brayman]

I've met staff who have been on board for years at a time and they wouldn't do that if they didn't think it was worth it. Many of them with new babies at home too, so good (relative) income is important to them.

[ovccruiser]

Thread star staff dismissed a bit misleading, they did not have their contract renewed, a little different. When working on contracts, I have, in the past, not had it renewed, it happens. The fact they decided to take a form of industrial action did not help the situation.

[kevinyork]

It is harsh I know. However they were on limited time contracts, not permanent staff, and P & O can decide who they want back on another contract. Seems there are plenty of willing volunteers to fill their spaces.

[C at Sea]

Whether they were sacked or not had contracts renewed, it still doesn't detract from the fact that P&O and other lines are really dealing in slave labour! 75p an hour is appalling. Tips shouldn't be mandatory or else they aren't really payments for a good service, they are just added costs. In other words tips should be given voluntary for good service. Its not the passengers fault that P&O don't pay their staff an honest, appropriate wage.

[Thejuggler]

75p is not slave labour if all you can earn at home is 10-20p an hour, which is what an Indian would get working in a hotel. 75p also excludes the fact all your accommodation, food, drink, laundry costs are covered.

 

An Indian working in your bank, insurance, utility call centre will earn more, but their disposable income will be much less.

[kevinyork]

Whether they were sacked or not had contracts renewed, it still doesn't detract from the fact that P&O and other lines are really dealing in slave labour! 75p an hour is appalling. Tips shouldn't be mandatory or else they aren't really payments for a good service, they are just added costs. In other words tips should be given voluntary for good service. Its not the passengers fault that P&O don't pay their staff an honest, appropriate wage.

 

Totallly agree tips should be given vountarily however even with P&Os low tipping recommendations many didnt bother to tip. If customers had not been so tight perhaps this situation would not have happened. 75p is only appalling if the average wage is £7.50. But if back home in India you could only earn 20p then 75p plus board and lodgings and flight back and forth to home suddenly seems more attractive. If the cruise companies paid wages equivalent to their home nation then the result would be no Indians would be employed on P&O.

[C at Sea]

I can see how 75p would be good if you could only get 20p at home, but does that make it right for P&O to pay that just because their staff are from a third world country?!

[kevinyork]

I can see how 75p would be good if you could only get 20p at home, but does that make it right for P&O to pay that just because their staff are from a third world country?!

 

If P&O paid wages equivalent to UK wages then they would not need recruitment offices in Mumbai and no Indian staff would be recruited. Not until wages across the world are equalised will this sort of disparity end. Many staff on P&O come back contract after contract and it is these people that would lose their jobs if wages were harmonised.

[kevinyork]

Just to turn this on its head.....if we had the chance to work on cruise ships and earn four times our wages back home would we not do it? Or would we think we are being used as slave labour?

 

I am not condoning it, I am just putting it into perspective.

[Thejuggler]

I can see how 75p would be good if you could only get 20p at home, but does that make it right for P&O to pay that just because their staff are from a third world country?!

 

Yes because it is almost 4 times their Country's wage.

[LibraLass41]

I agree the present new tipping idea is a shambles. The 'mean cruiser 'who never tipped before, will just remove the auto tip at reception and still not tip in person, so whats the point? :rolleyes:

[alvin moondust]

You could very well say most of British business is doing the same with Polish labour, Our factory is absolutely full of young Eastern Europeans working as contracted minimum wage labour via the Randstad organisation. Some of them are qualified teachers or nurses but are earning five times as much here doing basic packing jobs. We have one husband and wife couple who have returned home after 2.5 years and they have earned enough to buy a detached house!! so they are not complaining. The effect it has on the British economy is a different topic entirely:mad:

[bazzaw]

We have one husband and wife couple who have returned home after 2.5 years and they have earned enough to buy a detached house!!

 

Talked to a young Romanian bar attendant on a recent Cunard ship. She and her husband (on same ship) have, over the past 7 years paid off a house and car in Romania - and they are intending to leave the cruiseship industry after their current contract expires. There has been a cost to them - as they have a child at home who is looked after by her mother. She was very happy about her circumstances. Apparently Cunard is the only cruiseline that allows married couples to cohabit on their ships.

 

Barry

[terrierjohn]

It may be hard to accept but labour, just like everything else in the economy, is subject to the laws of supply and demand; and just as long as there are queues around the block at cruise line recruitment agencies in Mumbai, then the cost of that labour will be low. Only when the queues disappear will the cost of labour increase.

Then I suspect the same people who are criticising P&O for its labour policy will be moaning about the increase in cruise prices.;)

[tartanexile81]

I think the subject has widened out from the original post and everybody is of course entitled to an opinion. I just want to go back to the subject of this article and say I think it's disgusting that all these waiters are no longer employed because they dared to express an opinion in a way that was reasonable and acceptable IMO. Don't we all want to better ourselves. It's all relative. Too harsh P&O