The Sunday Mail
Tendai Chara
“Do you dream of living and working at sea? Do you enjoy working in a challenging and unique environment? If your answer to these questions is yes, then this is the time to make the move!” screamed an advertisement in a local newspaper.
“We offer exciting cruise ship career opportunities in a variety of onboard departments. Working for us is ideal if you are looking at taking your career to the next level. We employ team members of over 70 nationalities, creating a diverse and welcoming environment.”
Accompanying the advert were pictures of seemingly satisfied cruise ship workers of diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds.
The pictures spoke of opulence and glamour.
Job-seekers are told they can travel to major tourist destinations like The Bahamas, Hawaii, The Cayman Islands and many other exotic places.
Barely a month after an alleged Kuwaiti-focused human trafficking ring was busted in Zimbabwe, newspaper adverts for jobs on international cruise ships still abound.
The salaries offered are tantalising – a minimum of US$2 000 per month — and sometimes sound too good to be true.
The recruiting agents say they work with embassies and are highly reputable.
On offer are positions in massage therapy, fitness, security, casino jobs, video production, IT, housekeeping, human resources and food and beverages.
But is work on a cruise ship as glamorous as portrayed in the adverts?
An online presentation by Ross A Klein, a social worker who has undertaken 30 cruises totaling 300 days, says workers on these ships have contracts that run as long as 12 months, with the majority of them working 10 months non-stop, followed by a two-month vacation.
The workers return for another 10-month stretch, keeping them on the job and far from home for long periods at a go.
Cruise ship workers often work 10 to 14 hours a day, seven days a week.
According to Klein, a shipboard waiter may work as many as 16 hours a day, and often gets less than six hours of uninterrupted rest per night – well below international labour standards.
Klein further states that it is common to find collective agreements on cruise ships that require all shipboard employees to work 80 hours per week.
In a survey of shipboard employees conducted by the International Transport Workers’ Federation in 2001, 95 percent reported working seven days a week.
Cruise lines have systematically restricted the ability of workers to engage in collective action by hiring staff from multiple countries and from diverse cultural and ethnic backgrounds.
In those few cases where workers have joined together, they have met with harsh resistance from the companies.
Online sources indicate that in 1981, 240 Central American workers who went on strike to protest the unfair dismissal of co-workers were declared illegal immigrants and deported.
According to the ITF, workers are often paid sub-standard wages, have marginal accommodation, live on inadequate food and are subject to abuse and job uncertainty.
Apart from the bad working conditions, there has been an influx of international fraudsters who are duping job-seekers.
One of the world’s biggest cruise-ship operating companies, Princess Cruises, recently warned job-seekers about the emergence of bogus employment agencies.
“We have recently been made aware of fraudulent entities around the world claiming to represent Princess Cruises as recruitment partners.
We are working closely with our security department and local police authorities in various countries to prevent individuals from wrongly representing themselves as Princess’ recruitment partners.
“We strongly suggest that you only discuss employment opportunities with the agencies/partners listed below.
If you have any suspicion about the nature of ads or websites claiming to recruit on behalf of Princess Cruises, please contact the approved Princess agency located nearest your place of residence,” read a statement on the company’s website.
Locally, there has been an increase in the number fraudsters masquerading as employment agents.
The fraudsters are demanding money in return for employment which never comes.
Similarly, the Zimbabwe National Planning Council (ZNFPC) recently alerted job-seekers that it does not recruit through agents or middlemen and does not charge a fee at any stage of its recruitment process.
Meanwhile, police investigators say James Tungamirai Maroodza (30), accused of recruiting women and trafficking them to Kuwait, also produced bogus police clearances to speed up visa applications for his alleged victims.
Investigators say the suspected human trafficking ring used the finger prints of just one woman to process documentation for the rest of their alleged victims.
Last month Government assisted 21 women to return home while an equal number was being looked after at a shelter for run-away maids in Kuwait as part of the probe into Maroodza and his co-accused.
Apart from cruise-ships, some Zimbabweans are often tempted to work in dangerous working environments such as war-torn Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria, where they clear landmines.
Local professional security dog handlers, who are said to be in demand, are often employed in such countries.
The number of Zimbabweans working on cruise ships could not be ascertained since there is no database detailing such statistics.
Not all cruise-ship workers are, however, subjected to difficult working conditions.
Locals working for international cruise ships have, in the past, been featured in the local media, expressing satisfaction at how they were being treated.
The majority of those that were featured were not, however, happy with the long working hours.
Government has called on unemployed university graduates to register for possible job placements both abroad and locally.
Early this year, Government announced that South Sudan wants 20 000 Zimbabweans to work in different fields in that country.
The graduates will be paid United Nations international rates for expatriates, which are far better than what the majority of migrant workers get.
Negotiations for labour exportation deals are being held with countries like South Africa, Zambia, Malawi and Namibia.
Countries such as South Sudan, Namibia and Angola need professionals like pharmacists, teachers, engineers and IT specialists from Zimbabwe.
The latest Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency report puts Zimbabwe’s unemployment rate at 11 percent.
The country’s universities churn out more than 10 000 graduates every year with teacher’s colleges, polytechnics and other institutions of higher learning producing even more.
