Difference between Service charge & Gratuities

[smeyer418]

what? what did this response mean, my response was sympathatic for the staff, what are you saying, you lost me

and yes I work hard, but our government contols the extent to which my employer can "work me" therefore protecting me to a certain degree, the staff and crew onboard has no protection, i wish they did.

you really think the government in the US protects you from your employer? I don't. The only control is time and a half. there is almost no requirement for time off and there is NO requirement for paid time off. Those employers who do so did so as a result of competitive needs and need to keep Unions out. The middle class in this country should remember that the Unions had a great deal to do with the creation of a large middle class on this country. Most of the rules are the NCLA ship are Union rules not governmental ones.

I am not saying that Unions don't have there excesses but companies are just as bad...its not the Union workers who get unearned million dollar bonuses.

[mypleasure]

yes they do work long and hard, if they had to abide by our countrys employment laws, the cruise lines would not be able to work the staff as hard as they do

 

Also the cruiselines would have to employ more staff to ensure availability and we all should know what that would mean. Higher fares of course.

 

If the cruiselines were to abide by UK employment law, which is MY country's law, then the staff would all be on around $8 -$10 per hour since we have minimum wage laws.

 

As for my opinion of who gets what from the tip pool, I am happy to leave that to the cruiselines to decide.

[watchdiva]

Back in the day when DH and I first started cruising there was no auto-tip/dsc, whatever anyone wants to call it. You put your cash in the little envelopes the line provided and you distributed them. 20+ years later we now have auto-tip/dsc, whatever - we prefer this system and since NCL started it, we have never once removed and/or adjusted the tips downward because there was no need to do so and we continue to reward exemplary service from individuals appropriately.

 

It is absolutely amazing to me some of the rationales that pax use to explain why they removed or plan to remove tips and I wonder what planet they are living on.

 

I'm not talking about those instances were service was sub-par etc - that's a separate issue; I'm talking about one poster who was planning on adjusting the dsc down because they were off the ship during port days and why should they pay for the entire day when they weren't onboard but in port:eek:.

 

Everytime one of these threads gets started, I swear I'm not going to enter the fray but this one has on the whole remained more civil than most:D.