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14th October 2018, 11:51 AM
#81
Re: crew salaries on cruise ships
As we say say down here Chris "zackly"
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14th October 2018, 01:25 PM
#82
Re: crew salaries on cruise ships
working long days for no company pay , I thought that was abolished in 1833 when the Gold Coast to Caribbean cruises for Africans was stopped
Rob Page R855150 - British & Commonwealth Shipping ( 1965 - 1973 ) Gulf Oil -( 1973 - 1975 ) Sealink ( 1975 - 1986 )
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14th October 2018, 03:40 PM
#83
Re: crew salaries on cruise ships
When I went to sea in 1953 a catering boy, and I would assume a deck boy, was paid 10 pounds ten shillings a month sterling, that is worth in 2017 current pounds 272.00 pounds per month.
Turn-to was six a.m., I finished the last pot and swabbed the galley and out about seven p.m., with a couple of hours off in the afternoon, that came to a ten hour day plus an hours overtime. Forget the overtime hour and the days worked in a month and the Credit for a Sunday-at-sea and I'll call it 280 hours a month.
I checked with google and it stated that the minimum wage in the U.K. is Ten pounds fifty p. per hour, if so that's 2,524.00 pounds for 280 hours worked. If this is correct, I was paid two hundred and seventy-two pounds for two thousand, five hundred and twenty-four pounds worth of work! If my numbers are correct, boy were we screwed.
My best man at my previous marriage in England, prior to leaving for Canada and ship mate, was part of the delegation that went to the houses of Parliament to meet with M.P.s at the time of the strike. One of the strike leaders tried to inform one of the M.P.s of the working conditions and the long hours vs. the pay scale and the M.P. interrupted and said "Well what else do you have to do with your time at sea?"
Last edited by Rodney Mills; 14th October 2018 at 03:42 PM.
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14th October 2018, 03:52 PM
#84
Re: crew salaries on cruise ships
Can remember joining B.P. as a j/eng. in late 60s the salary was approx. £800 per. annum included a 56 hour week + field days galore so on average 80+hours a week, no overtime. Yes well and truly robbed, the answer being "if you can't take a joke you shouldn't have signed on"
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15th October 2018, 12:07 AM
#85
Re: crew salaries on cruise ships
Hi Rod.
7 pounds a month and all found, plus free world travel, Bliss
Cheers Des
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15th October 2018, 02:26 AM
#86
Re: crew salaries on cruise ships
Was a different world though Des. Remember one of the biggest eye openers for me was seeing how the wharfies in Australia and New Zealand got free fresh milk. Was always the ships crowd ambition to get part time work on the docks for the free milk alone before even the money. As regards wages on British Ships the National Maritime Year Book was the ships bible and as the sea lawyer or mate had to be conversant of all the fine print. Such as sanitary duties as against overtime, loss of sleep as against emergency duties, Sunday’s at sea as against half Sunday’s at sea. Two eggs a week as against three , was all there somewhere in the pages. Short hand money was one that frequently cropped up. Today if the same rules applied seamen would be loaded cash wise. So in all the petty arguments it was all orchestrated to the final of what we see today , they have the cheapest ships pay wise you are ever likely to get, so that excuse for going out of business isn’t there anymore. The talk today is no crews , it’s all been rubbish on top of rubbish re the downgrade off British ships. As said from my short term in a shipping office in 1959 the smallest item for the ships net profit re deductions was crews wages, and the highest was Insurance, so maybe the banks and the insurance company’s should take most of the flak. JS
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15th October 2018, 05:17 AM
#87
Re: crew salaries on cruise ships
Many of the cruise ships of today are USA owned so paying gratuities comes natural to them.
However on some lines now compulsory gratuities have been abandoned as bloods have kicked up about it.
Royal Caribbean along with Princess no longer apply compulsory on any ship ,sailing from an Australian port, also same applies to P&O both in Oz and UK.
Though with P&O here in Oz I would not even pay the fare things on them are so bad.
On ships sailing from other ports all you have to do is sign a waiver and no compulsory gratuities.
On the last Cruise out of Japan it was easy as the Japanese do not tip under any circumstances.
But if service is good, and we have never had anything g else on the 20 we have done so far, at the end of the cruise the winger, his assistant and the BR all get bunged a wedge.
Service to those who work in hospitality, and I spent my life in it, are there to serve and if you cannot do so then you have no place in it.
Crew will go out of their way to ensure hey can do all possible for you. Have been on some ships where some crew we have sailed with before and it is amazing how they can remember you. On one in the buffet a steward came up on our first day and said to me, ' same as usual from the bar', he remembered from almost two years previous what we always had as a lunch time drink there.
Wages may not be the best, but from what I have been told by crew it is fair. Overtime is calculated on the number of hours worked per month, once the allocated is reached then overtime kicks in.
Some bar crew are paid a retainer of only $50 per month but $1 for all drinks they serve.
Are they happy with their lot?
Judging by the number of years some have been with them I would say yes, particularly with Princess where I was told by one winger there is a waiting list for crew wishing to join the company it is so popular and cares for it's crew so well.
Happy daze John in Oz.
Life is too short to blend in.
John Strange R737787
World Traveller
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15th October 2018, 04:49 PM
#88
Re: crew salaries on cruise ships
Des, I wasn't whinging mate. I did almost five years in the M.N. and wouldn't swap it for quids.
I was an undisciplined London street urchin, poorly educated and cocky. The merch taught me discipline, and that there was always people a lot tougher than I thought I was, so I had better control my temper and my mouth or I would be in a lot of hurt. But best of all it gave me a first class training in the food industry, so shore-side I was light years ahead of lubbers.
Even the down time was good, I could always find something to read.
The money I made ashore more than made-up the cheap labor rate I was paid then many times over, allowing me to retire at a relative young age.
There was one voyage I could have done without, the "La Cumbre", hated every miserable moment of it, and the almost five years was enough for me, but if the clock was turned back somehow I'd sign on again in a flash, but less the ten months on the "La Cumbre."
Cheers, Rodney
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16th October 2018, 12:44 AM
#89
Re: crew salaries on cruise ships
Hi Rod.
Sorry if it came across that way Rod wasn't meant that way. I think we all loved our time at sea, I only did 16 years owing to family commitments but have had 54 years of memories, can't ask more than that.
Cheers Des
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28th February 2019, 05:00 PM
#90
Re: wages
Hi Keith - as a matter of passing interest I was with NSZCo in the early '50s for a while and if memory serves me correctly a dining room steward (or Assistant Steward as described in the Articles of Agreement) was on a basic of about 27pounds 10 shillings per month plus Sundays at Sea and plus overtime (some of which was unofficialy 'guaranteed'). On our table of eight the (very hard working) winger would usually receive a gratuity of around £5 from each person for each of the outward and homeward legs of the voyage (30/31 days each way), say £80-ish for the round trip of 3 to 4 months. NZSC (and sister company Federal SNCo) had a generally good reputation for being 'happy' ships with high signing on standards.
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