Cruise Director Awarded €130K After 18 Years of Unlawful Contracts

An Italian crew member with Costa Cruises has been awarded a court settlement that includes a generous payout and rehiring following a lawsuit that found, in part, that his past employment with the cruise line had been illegal.

The suit was taken up by the Bari Labor Court in Italy after the employee was not rehired for his position as cruise director. Costa Cruises is headquartered in Genoa, Italy and the line’s nine ships are all flagged in Italy.

According to ANSA, the unnamed crew member has worked for Costa Cruises for 18 years with a total of 51 individual contracts from 2003 to 2021.

This averages to 3.5 contracts per year, though the exact lengths and other terms of the individual contracts were not specified. It is unknown whether he always served as cruise director or if he changed positions or roles during his tenure with the cruise line, as is common for crew members who advance to leadership positions.

At the end of the employee’s most recent contract, his service with the cruise line was not renewed. No explanation has been released regarding why he was not rehired for another contract.

Generally, when a contract is not renewed, all benefits are subsequently terminated, including health coverage and any potential pensions or bonuses.

To be clear, the crew member had been hired through a company based in Curacao. It is not uncommon for cruise lines to work with different employment agencies around the world, particularly in countries known for their customer service and other qualities highly desirable in crew members.

The crew member appealed the dismissal with surprising results from the court.

Court Rules Contract Style Is Being Abused

Rather than just reinstating the crew member, the court judged that the repeated use of a “fixed-term contract” for such a lengthy period was an abuse of that type of contract in violation of both Italian and European Union laws.

A “fixed-term contract” is a specific type of agreement for exact duties over a defined period of time. The most common use of fixed-term contracts is for project work such as consulting or freelance assignments.

The Italian court judged that this crew member should have been treated as a permanent, long-term employee of Costa Cruises, given the length of time and number of contracts he had with the cruise line.

Read Also: How Much Does a Cruise Director Make?

It was ordered that the crew member be returned to work, and Costa Cruises was further ordered to pay €130,000 (approximately $153,000 USD) in compensation for the contract violations, as well as interest on that amount. No further fees for any stress or emotional concerns were awarded.

Costa Cruises may appeal the decision, but the cruise line has not made any official statement on the litigation.

Could Crew Contracts Change?

This lawsuit could be the beginning of a change in how cruise line crew members are hired and employed by different cruise lines.

Fixed-term contracts are quite common in the cruise industry, covering many different types of crew members from stateroom stewards and dining room wait staff to entertainers, photographers, shore excursions and guest services team members, and yes, even cruise directors.

While such limited contracts are generally acceptable for intermittent or short-term work, long-standing cruise line crew members might find themselves in more unique situations that could necessitate contract changes.

Cruise lines might change their hiring practices to adjust to this type of situation, or might create a different type of contract for a crew member who satisfactorily completes a certain number of fixed-term contracts.

Contracts might also be rewritten with language better clarifying the nature of the fixed-term clauses to ensure cruise lines are protected from such lawsuits in the future.