Cunard flaging out

[bill roberts]

Anounced on the news tonight that cunard are comming of the british register and going to bermuda . They say its so they can have weddings on board, or is so they dont come under british employment laws (min wage etc) and safety laws. All the best bill be good.

[Colin Hawken]

I uspect the latter Bill.Be able to pay theiir Filipino or whatever crews even lessnow.

[happy daze john in oz]

This is indeed an odd one. FRom what I have learned about the cruise industry the rate of pay for general crew is about the same for all lines. But when it comes to officers it is different. For example cruise ships in Australian waters will employ mainly non Oz crew as they can pay them a lower rate than if they were from Oz. Believe the same applies to most of the companies when it comes to officers.

[Capt Bill Davies]

My understanding of this is that the owners of Cunard want to capitalize on the latest craze for shipboard marriages officiated over by the Shipmaster which of course has no legal standing under British Flag.
Considering the Red Ensign is now a confirmed flag of convenience I would have thought powers within our government would have keen to change this legislation as everything else seems negotiable/up for sale. Furthermore, the rates payable to the Filipino crew will have the backing of our brothers in the ITF/AMOSUP ........or have they. The ITF are very quiet when challenged about rates of pay on cruise ships.

Bill