Bahamas Paradise Cruise Line is being accused of lying to crew, withholding wages and coercing them into staying on board one of its ships when the Covid-19 outbreak upended the cruise industry.
Dragan Janicijevic, a Serbian card dealer working aboard the 50,015-gt Grand Classica (built 1991), filed a lawsuit in the US District Court for the Southern District of Florida on Tuesday. He has accused the company of forced labour, false imprisonment and breach of contract, among other claims.
"The crew were unnecessarily kept on the ships for months on end, many thousands of miles away from their homes and families," attorneys from Miami-based Lipcon, Marguiles, Alsina & Winkleman wrote in the complaint.
"Remarkably, there are still crew members effectively held hostage on the ship. This egregiously delayed repatriation is tantamount to false imprisonment of the crew."
The lawsuit seeks class action status, noting as many as 10,000 seafarers may have suffered similarly.
It said after the US Centers for Disease Control issued its no sail order on 14 March, crews on both the Grand Classica and 47,263-gt Grand Celebration (built 1987) had their landing permits confiscated, preventing them from leaving the ships.
Crew aboard the Grand Classica were then said to have been moved to the Grand Celebration and made to go to a meeting on 17 March with the cruise line's majority owner Kevin Sheehan. He told them contracts would be terminated and that they would not be fully compensated.
The crew's collective bargaining agreements with the line said any termination of contracts ahead of their expiry would pay out two months' wages and severance. The lawsuit said crew have received no compensation.
The next day, management allegedly circulated a document stating that crew members were voluntarily staying on board instead of flying home and would do so until government restrictions on crew changes were lifted or operations returned to normal.
The lawsuit said crew were told to sign this or never be hired back by Bahamas Paradise.
Crew continued living on board, provided with 4.5 litres of water per week and fed in "large buffet settings" while being told Bahamas Paradise was doing everything possible to get them home.
On 18 April, the Honduran consulate in Miami negotiated a flight to repatriate crew members, but the line allegedly refused to allow them to leave the ship.
The lawsuit seeks to recover the seafarers' lost wages, for which attorneys need company records to determine a dollar amount.
They also accuse Bahamas Paradise of negligence for failure to repatriate and negligent misrepresentation.
According to AIS data, the ship is at anchor off Palm Beach, Florida.
"Out of respect to the legal process and the privacy of those involved, we will not be commenting publicly on this matter," Bahamas Paradise said in a statement.
One of two
Janicijevic's lawsuit is the second attempted class action lawsuit from cruiseship crew members over their employers' handling of the Covid-19 outbreak.
In June, Filipino national Ryan Maunes Maglana sued Celebrity Cruises, accusing it of discrimination against 1,700 of his compatriots aboard the line's 14 cruiseships.
Maglana's lawsuit said Royal Caribbean brand Celebrity refused to either pay or repatriate crew members, instead holding them aboard while moored in San Diego.
In July, attorneys for Celebrity moved to dismiss the lawsuit and compel arbitration as required by Maglana's employment contract.
