The seafarers hardest hit with redundancies during the pandemic have been those who work in the cruise industry.
Most crew members on board a cruiseship work in the hotel department, and without passengers to serve, they have been out of a job since the cruise industry shut down in March 2020.
Forced out of ports, cruiseships languished at anchor for months, leaving their crews in limbo while their operators tried to find ways to get everyone home at a time when borders were firmly shut and ports would not allow anyone to disembark.
Eventually, the cruise industry took the drastic measure of ferrying crews back to their home countries using a fleet of cruiseships that was dispatched around the globe.
Jim Barreiro de Leon, president and chief executive of Miami-based Cruise Management International, strongly criticised various governing bodies for being quick to blame cruise operators for their perceived lack of support to get their crews back home, yet never providing any solutions.
"By siding with crew members when they complained, they perpetuated their fears and concerns rather than comforting them, accusing owners of inaction, rather than seeking clarification from owners as to what they were doing to address the matter," he explained.
"This is certainly not the only reason for the crew retention issue, but it hasn’t inspired them either to be part of a workforce and industry that bails on them when things become difficult.”
As the cruise industry creaks back to life, operators have yet to encounter problems finding crews for ships that have returned to service.
Their concern is what happens when the bulk of the cruise fleet returns to service as scheduled in 2022.
"For this upcoming winter season, we only expect to operate four vessels, so we will not know how serious the problem is until next summer, when we expect all of our 10 vessels to be in operation," explained Niels-Erik Lund, president of Miami-based Sunstone Ships.
Already there are signs of potential challenges to getting engineers and medical staff.
"Unfortunately, I believe the pandemic will have a long-term effect on crew retention and recruitment," added Lund.
