Topic: Cruise firms condemn new Equality Act

ALL Celebrity ships are registered in Malta

QUOTE:

When we were on the Eclipse had Valletta (our capital), Malta all over the decks and the Maltese Marine Flag. It surprised me.
I wonder if other Celebrity ships are flagged in Malta.
(They should give me a discount coming from Malta)

In the UK we expect staff to be paid the rate for th job - that's why we object to the exploitative tips.

The only P&O ship registered in UK is Azura. All the others are registered in Bermuda.
Brian

It's all well and good calling for crew to be paid a fair wage, and morally there perhaps isn't a fair counter argument.

However, the practical implications of suddenly raising all crew pay to UK minimum wage as a minimum for British ships would have huge effects on the cruisline costs and therefore cruise line fares. Given the rumours I read about crew earning basic salaries in the region of $50 per month an increase to UK minimum wage would cause a huge increase in % terms. £5.93 per hour is £207.55 per month which is about $330 dollars. That's a pay rise in excess of 300%. Now whilst this is based on estimated, and indeed rumoured, figures, the perspective is the same. Given the number of crew on board the increase in costs would be astronomical.

The irony would be that many of those calling for this sort of wage increase would undoubtedly find themselves unable to afford to cruise on effected ships, and I wonder how strongly they would be calling for this sort of increase if they knew they would be priced out of the market!