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A federal judge has approved a settlement between cruise ship workers and their employer, ending a class action lawsuit alleging unpaid work.
District Judge Beth Bloom is hearing the legal challenge brought by Bahamas Paradise Cruise Line ship workers who claim they were “held hostage” during initial COVID-19-related closures and cancellations.
While everyone onboard at the time was finding ways home, lead plaintiff Dragan Janicijevic says he and his fellow cruise ship workers were required to stay and perform duties such as cleaning, cooking and ship upkeep, but were never paid.
The 44-year-old Serbian national said in the initial complaint he and other international cruise ship workers onboard in March were left stuck after their visa-related papers were seized by their employers.
Janicijevic further alleged cruise ship workers were “forced to sign these agreements” saying they would stay onboard voluntarily and “were threatened that they would not be rehired if they did not sign,” according to the complaint.
The bulk of cruise ship workers throughout the industry have passports from Asia and the Balkans, according to the Daily Mail, meaning much of the Bahamas Paradise Cruise Line staff were unable to disembark despite being anchored off the coast of Florida.
Janicijevic called the forced work “involuntary servitude” when he filed the class action lawsuit in August and estimated some 10,000 cruise ship workers were put in this position worldwide.
“Remarkably, there are still crewmembers effectively held hostage on the ship. This egregiously delayed repatriation is tantamount to false imprisonment of the crew,” he said in the complaint.
The Miami Herald reported 143 cruise ship workers were still on board when they published a related investigation Aug. 12.
The pandemic-related lockdowns on ships at sea had led to a spike in cruise ship worker suicides, according to a Bloomberg investigation, which found more than 90,000 of these workers were stranded for two months, sometimes never leaving their tiny, windowless cabins.
The agreed settlement between the cruise ship workers and the cruise line satisfies demands that the company pay the alleged two months the employees worked without compensation.
The deal means the 276 cruise line workers involved in the class action lawsuit will split $612,000, according to Law 360.
The settlement also means the company in charge of the cruise ships will change its policy when it comes to repatriating employees and compensating duties.
Do you know anyone working in the cruise line industry? What do you think of plaintiff claims they were held hostage during the lockdowns? Let us know what you think in the comments below.
Counsel representing the plaintiffs in this cruise ship workers class action lawsuit are Michael A. Winkleman, Daniel W. Grammes and Andrew S. Freedman of Lipcon Margulies Alsina & Winkleman PA; Adam Moskowitz and Howard M. Bushman of The Moskowitz Law Firm PLLC.
The Cruise Ship Workers Class Action Lawsuit is Janicijevic, et al. v. Classica Cruise Operator Ltd., et al., Case No. 1:20-cv-23223, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.
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