POA Crew

[sportsmum]

If the crew is mostly from the US does that mean they are paid differently?

 

Other cruise line crew members are primarily from the Philippine's and paid a bare minimum daily rate. The daily service charge makes up a lion's share of their wage. Does POA pay the US crew the same way or do they have to pay them minimum wage or above?

 

The reason I ask is that I have read that the crew can be a little less concerned about passenger comfort. I wonder if this is because they aren't as concerned about the tip at the end of the cruise?

[anthem]

Yes, POA crew is US citizens. Strange law so NCL created another company just to handle that (NCL America). They still operate on tips/service fees but do operate under US employment law. And since that is the case, there is a different feeling of service with POA than with the rest of the ships.

[spacepotatoes]

Because the ship is US flagged, it has to operate under US rules, unlike the other ships in its fleet. One of the requirements is that the majority of the crew (not all) be US citizens and that they be paid accordingly. I'm not sure, though, how much this really contributes to the difference in crew attitude. I suspect it's more a combination of factors. Cultural differences between US crew and the crew foreign flagged ships probably affects the attitudes as well.

[sparks1093]

If the crew is mostly from the US does that mean they are paid differently?

 

Other cruise line crew members are primarily from the Philippine's and paid a bare minimum daily rate. The daily service charge makes up a lion's share of their wage. Does POA pay the US crew the same way or do they have to pay them minimum wage or above?

 

The reason I ask is that I have read that the crew can be a little less concerned about passenger comfort. I wonder if this is because they aren't as concerned about the tip at the end of the cruise?

 

Yes, POA crew is US citizens. Strange law so NCL created another company just to handle that (NCL America). They still operate on tips/service fees but do operate under US employment law. And since that is the case, there is a different feeling of service with POA than with the rest of the ships.

 

Yes, they operate under US law, but Federal law does allow tipped employees to receive a lower hourly wage as long as when tips and hourly wage combined equals Federal minimum wage (or state minimum wage if that's higher). I do not know exactly how their pay is structured but it may be structured that way for tipped employees.

[Cubechick]

If the crew is mostly from the US does that mean they are paid differently?

 

Other cruise line crew members are primarily from the Philippine's and paid a bare minimum daily rate. The daily service charge makes up a lion's share of their wage. Does POA pay the US crew the same way or do they have to pay them minimum wage or above?

 

The reason I ask is that I have read that the crew can be a little less concerned about passenger comfort. I wonder if this is because they aren't as concerned about the tip at the end of the cruise?

 

My experience on the America doesn't jibe with that last statement. All of the crew we encountered were very friendly, interested in helping make your experience great and enthusiastic about their jobs.

 

In fact, we found that we liked the American crew more than crews on other ships.

 

I also wanted to ETA that while I'm sure they're paid more than their Philippino counterparts, most of them are making minimum wage, which in this country isn't very much when you factor in the cost of living. It's all relative. I'm sure they're just as interested in tips as their countparts.

[Pokeraddict]

It hasn't been mentioned that the US staff ARE unionized and therefore work just like folks at home with 8 hour days and 5/6 day work weeks.

 

Its also safe to say that their work ethic is nowhere near what is is from foreign staff, they just don't have the drive as the foreign staff, they are also not feeding a lot of mouths like the foreign staff ie sending their pay cheque home to support a family plus grandparents etc.

In all fairness I will also say that I could not work the way the foreign staff do.

[sportsmum]

Thank you all, this answers my question just dandy.

 

Pokeraddict: Neither could I!! And very interesting about their work week. That did not occur to me, but the work ethic did and that's what I suppose I was eluding to.

[DAGVBSB]

It hasn't been mentioned that the US staff ARE unionized and therefore work just like folks at home with 8 hour days and 5/6 day work weeks.

 

Its also safe to say that their work ethic is nowhere near what is is from foreign staff, they just don't have the drive as the foreign staff, they are also not feeding a lot of mouths like the foreign staff ie sending their pay cheque home to support a family plus grandparents etc.

In all fairness I will also say that I could not work the way the foreign staff do.

 

Exactly right about the work ethic. American workers simply don't do well in service jobs like on a cruise ship because of our work ethic.

 

I was on the Dawn about a year after the Pride ships launched and the Maitre'd and I were talking about it after he found out that I had sailed the Pride of Aloha. He was telling me that he was responsible for training many of the POA and POAm crew members on the Dawn before they shiped out to Hawaii and he said it was a nightmare. He said that the American crew members were always complaining about the workload, carrying heavy trays, the hours and they were always asking for breaks for one thing or another. They would turn 15 minute breaks into 30's, and were usually late for shifts. He even found them sleeping in back rooms (or in one case, on a booth in a closed section.) when they were supposed to be on duty. He said he never met a more lazier group of workers in his life and he had predicted that there would be service problems on the NCL America fleet as a result.

 

Service problems have improved on NCL America since they reduced the fleet from 3 Pride ships to just one. They need less crew members so they can sort out the bad and keep the best.

[Pokeraddict]

NCLA has also been feeding in foreign staff from other ships in hopes that their work habits, attitude etc will rub off on to the American crew.

 

They offer foreign staff a shorter contract as one of the perks of moving to POA.

[Sherrica]

We just returned from the POA and found the staff to be very friendly and hard working.

 

I don't know about their pay schedule, but a few staff members we talked to did mention they work 5 months and then get 5 weeks off. I did not ask specifically, but it sounded like they work 7 days a week (maybe they get a half day off in there somewhere to go ashore).

 

The majority of the staff on board seemed eager to keep the guests happy and accomodate whatever we needed.

 

IMHO it may be that foreign crew members deal better with unfriendly guests than American crew members do. This is not based on anything I witness specifically between crew and guests, but I did encounter some guests who were less than friendly and I know that I personally would have a hard time coping with that on a regular basis if I were in the position of having to try to keep those people happy.

 

In my experience when I'm friendly and kind and treat people with respect I usually receive the same back from others (on the ship and in real life).

 

There was really only one crew member that I felt was less friendly than the rest and it wasn't that she was rude or anything overt like that, I just felt like she didn't like me lol. Maybe she's just shy.

 

Just my 2 cents ;).