Hi to all of you my dear friends here at read.cash, for this article of mine i will share to you my experiences working on a cruise ship industry while in this hard situation of global pandemic so let's get started.
I'm working in a cruise ship industry as a laundryman in Costa Crocerie under Italian flagship. I could say that these job of mine right now is actually my dream job I said it because aside from getting a much decent salary compare to other jobs we seafarers have the opportunity to go and explore other countries of the world that you will not able to travel if you are not a rich person. And the fact that we are able to see this beautiful countries free of expenses and at the same time earning money. I could say that working on board for my personal opinion is not easy because everyday for us is like always Monday as in we are working 7 days a week no days off. Being a seafarer is I can say one of the stable job to have as once you have been accepted and sign a contract on your agency or principal employer your job is continuous I mean once you had finish a contract which normally like 8 months minimum and maximum 11 months, before you go disembarked on the ship you are working you already know how long your vacation will last. As you have already your next joining date to work again on board. That it is only up to you on how longer you can work on board or in some instances some crew members have been sent home when they are involved in some fighting incidents or abuse of the use of alcohols or taking some illegal drugs.
So let's go on to my main topic here on my article, as we all know that the situation all over the world right now is not good brought by the corona virus global pandemic. Because of it one of the industry that has been hit a lot is the cruise ship industry as it forces to stop all the cruise ship operations all over the world since April of last year. So lot's of seafarers now does not have a work or no schedule yet to come back working on board. And I'm just so lucky to be working still on board, that after I did not able to finish my contract last year because of the pandemic which I was repatriated last April and then thanks GOD I got a call from my agency and able to go back here working again on board last October 17.
Coming into my 4th month of my contract now there is a lot of differences from this pandemic contract compare to our normal contract and one of that is the salary since we are working without any passengers before we sign our contract in our country it includes in the contract that we are receiving only half of our normal salary. That when I read about that I have no choice but to accept it that for me it is better for me like that, than stay on my country and have no income coming as I already been in vacation for more than 6 months.