Celebrity Cruises is being accused of holding its Filipino seafarers captive aboard its 14 ships in a discrimination lawsuit filed in Miami federal court.
The lawsuit, filed on behalf of crew member Ryan Maunes Maglana, seeks class action status for the 1,700 Filipinos employed by the Royal Caribbean Cruises brand that it allegedly refused to repatriate or pay as the coronavirus raged.
He has accused the cruise line of discriminating against the Filipino crew.
"Without a doubt, we are witnessing a human rights tragedy of immense proportions unfold before our very eyes. But unlike in the past, [Celebrity] and its colleagues in the cruise ship cartel cannot hide behind the lawless open oceans where many of their misdeeds are typically swept away with the current," Maglana's attorney, Raul Delgado of Delgado Trial Attorneys, wrote in the complaint, filed on 21 May.
"This time, the world is watching, the nation is watching, and a failure to act and fight for what is right will not go unnoticed. We are all witnesses."
Maglana said he worked aboard the 91,000-gt Celebrity Millennium (built 2000), which discharged passengers in Singapore from 10 February until 14 February. The ship then sailed to the Philippines, where the lawsuit says nearly 1,000 of the ship's crew live.
The crew, Maglana argued, was excited at the opportunity to depart, expecting that Celebrity would cancel further cruises. Instead, the ship left Manila Bay for a cross-Pacific voyage to Mexico before docking in San Diego, California, where it has remained since 20 March.
The ship arrived in the US a week after Royal Caribbean suspended all cruises and the country's Centers for Disease Control (CDC) issued a no-sail order.
From there, the crew were allegedly prevented from leaving, with Celebrity citing the CDC repatriation guidelines. The company also allegedly told Maglana that he had flights home three times in April and once in May, before informing him the flights were cancelled.
That, and insistence from Celebrity captains that the seafarers were being held for safety, not economic reasons, were said to have constituted a disinformation campaign "to avoid mutiny or rebellion on board".
Cost saving
"Why would the cruise lines ... delay repatriation of its crew? The answer, as is usually the case with the cruise industry, comes down to dollars and cents," the complaint read.
Maglana has since departed the ship for the Philippines, according to court papers.
The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages for false imprisonment, employment discrimination, Jones Act negligence, unseaworthiness and lack of maintenance and cure along with wages and penalties for Maglana and the estimated 1,700 Filipino seafarers in Celebrity's employ.
Celebrity's attorneys in the lawsuit, Jerry Hamilton of Hamilton Miller & Birthisel and Scott Ponce of Holland & Knight, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The cruise line's press office forwarded TradeWinds' request to the communication team of parent Royal Caribbean, which did not immediately respond.
The Covid-19 outbreak has hit cruise lines especially hard, with Maglana's lawsuit joining legal actions taken by passengers and shareholders over the industry's handling of the pandemic.
Roughly 1,300 passengers aboard two ships sailing for Carnival Corp's Princess Cruises, were infected with the respiratory illness in January and February and passengers on a third Princess ship sued after two died from the virus.
Thousands of crew members have been stuck on board, with countries barring cruiseships from their ports over concerns they would spread Covid-19. The isolation has reportedly led to suicides and a hunger strike aboard Royal Caribbean's 140,000-gt Navigator of the Seas (built 2002).
It is unclear when ships will begin sailing again.
In order to deal with the fleet lay-up, the industry's big three of Carnival, Royal Caribbean and Norwegian Cruise Line have taken out loans, as their shares stay well off 52-week highs.
