Channel 4 programme Despatches - the lowdown on Cruises

This programme was aired last night and the content of which shocked me.

A reporter went undercover on one of the Celebrity Cruises ships as a waiter, was expected to work a 10 hour day for which he was paid and then go on training courses unpaid, seven days a week. He had to pay for his uniform and also had a pay the cruise liner nearly £700 in case he went home early (and if he had it would have been at his own expense). True he got his lodging free and for nothing and his food but he was being paid less than half the basic UK minimum wage.

Some of the other staff told the reporter that they had to pay to get a job on the ship in the first place and it would have taken a year to pay off this debt before they actually got a wage. Some of the cabin staff, had to hire help whose wages they had to provide, just so their work could be done on time as too much was expected of them. Surely this is nothing short of slave labour?

I am going on a cruise three weeks today and am glad I am not holidaying aboard one of these floating cities, where this practice seems to be rife. Every passenger is expected and gets charged a certain amount for the cabin staff and waiter to your table for tips, that prior to the programme I thought "tipping them for doing their job seems a bit mad" but after seeing this Despatches programme I shall not mind so much. The management of Celebrity Cruises made all sorts of vanilla statements saying this did not go on, but there is something clearly wrong, somewhere along the line.

Hi,

we went on a cruise a few years ago.

Tipping is pretty much mandatory for kitchen and cabin staff, and is what actually "pays" those crew.

Its an American model, and is followed in many USA restaurants, where wages are very low.

Cheers,
karen

I watched this programme with some scepticism having been on the Eclipse myself and very recently another Celebrity cruise ship. There has been a lot of debate on the chat forum of cruise.co.uk where some opinions are divided. The link below is taken from a respected website and gives another take on the whole matter.

We paid our gratuities upfront with the holiday balance and because we received excellent service from our cabin attendants we were happy to give them extra cash in hand at the end of the cruise. They work hard, these guys, are always cheerful and chatty, nothing is too much trouble and are much appreciated. Our senior attendant has been working for this line for over twenty years. It can't be so bad!

http://www.cruisecritic.co.uk/blog/?p=6103

Hi,

I have to admit, I find Channel 4s "investigative reporting" generally very poor.

A few months ago I switched off a programme on funeral directors as it was so one-sided and short on actual facts, I think it was in the same series as the cruise one.

This is "scandal reaction" journalism - this is a reflection on what our newspapers have become over the last decade or so.

Cheers,
karen

Agreed, Dispatches is no longer about the facts but recycling what already goes on and is well known. I was watching the recent one about Poundland and product sizing only to give up half way as it is common practice between manufacturers and retailers to gloss over with marketing. I knew this stuff 20 years ago and in 20 years time it won't change!