‘A Human Rights Tragedy’: Lawsuit Looks to Represent Filipino Celebrity Cruise Crew Members ‘Held Captive’ on Ships for Months

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Celebrity Cruises has been hit with a proposed class action lawsuit over its allegedly “callous and inhumane” decision to keep crew members from specific countries trapped on board passenger-less vessels with no wages and no opportunity to see family amid the COVID-19 crisis.

The plaintiff claims he and other contracted Filipino crew members are currently being “held captive” aboard Celebrity’s Millennium vessel, which has had no passengers since February 10, 2020. The lawsuit says nearly 1,000 Filipino crew members remain on board the Millennium without pay more than two months after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued its first no-sail order on March 14. 

Upon information and belief, there are at least 1,700 Filipino seafarers being similarly held captive throughout Celebrity’s 14-vessel fleet, and nearly 7,000 employed by other cruise lines under the Royal Caribbean/Celebrity umbrella, the lawsuit alleges. 

According to the complaint, Vietnam and Singapore agreed in February to allow the Millennium to dock at their respective ports following rejections from Hong Kong and Thailand. The case says that after disembarking its last passengers on February 10, the Millennium stayed in Singapore until February 14, when the vessel sailed east to Manila, arriving in the city on February 19.  

At the time, the Millennium’s Filipino crew members were excited by the prospect of returning to their home country and hopeful that they’d be allowed to stay if Celebrity intended to cancel future cruises due to the coronavirus outbreak, the plaintiff says. Unfortunately, the Millennium’s Filipino crew members “were cruelly taken from Manila” less than 24 hours after arriving, the lawsuit claims, adding that only those who had concluded their contracts with the defendant or had a suitable replacement onboard were allowed to disembark for repatriation. 

“Celebrity, apparently oblivious to the media frenzy that was beginning across the globe which had begun to focus on the cruise lines collective role in facilitating the virus’s spread, and the ancillary fact that ships in its fleet, Millennium included, had already been passenger-less for close to 10 days,” the complaint reads.

Notwithstanding crew members’ pleas to be allowed to disembark in their home port, Celebrity instead refueled the Millennium and continued eastward toward Honolulu and the western U.S. seaboard, the suit goes on. The plaintiff says that even though the Honolulu stop “came and went” on March 1, Celebrity was still reluctant to allow Filipino crew members to repatriate. From Honolulu, the Millennium continued eastward, eventually arriving in Ensenada, Baja California in Mexico on March 11, the case says. Two days later, Royal Caribbean, Celebrity’s parent company, suspended all future cruises, per the suit.

The Millennium departed Ensenada on March 19, before which some crew members were allowed to disembark and sign off, the suit says. Many Filipino crew members’ requests for leave to sign off the ship were denied, however, due to the apparent lack of a replacement, the lawsuit claims.

To date, the ship remains docked in San Diego, the complaint states.

According to the lawsuit, the plaintiff has been held without wages since his contract was terminated by Celebrity on March 30. The man was advised upon his termination that he would be repatriated on April 1, in accordance with the terms of the collectively bargained agreement between Celebrity and a “union” that the company established itself in Italy “for the purposes of claiming that the CBA was collectively bargained for,” the case alleges.

Despite the requirement that Celebrity repatriate its crew within 24 hours of contract termination, the plaintiff’s April 2 flight—as well as replacement flights on the 8^th, 16^th, 26^th, 28^th and May 11 and 12, were all canceled, according to the suit.

As to the question of why a cruise line would delay repatriating its crew members, the complaint surmises the reasoning comes down to profits being “far more important than a replaceable crewmember,” whose job can be taken by “an eager replacement” that will gladly accept paltry wages for six to nine months of work. 

“Without a doubt, we are witnessing a human rights tragedy of immense proportions unfold before our very eyes,” the lawsuit reads. “But unlike in the past, Defendant 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.”

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