Viking Cruises, one of the world’s fastest-growing luxury cruise lines announced a quite generous financial compensation for its crew amid the global coronavirus crisis. in order to ensure the Viking employees continue to receive salary for the following months, the company has presented the crew of their ocean cruise ships with the following plan which will be in effect starting April 1.

• -Crew at home waiting to join the Viking ships will receive 50% of their monthly salary.
• -Hotel crew who are on board the Viking ships will receive 60% of their monthly salary, plus every second day off.
• -Deck and technical crew onboard will continue to work as usual and will receive 100% of their monthly salary.

What is quite interesting about this offer is that Viking decided to include the first time crew who have signed a contract with the company but had never joined the ships due to the global crisis, they will also receive a goodwill payment. Meaning that this group of crew will receive 50% of their projected monthly salary, 4 weeks after their sign-on date stated in the contract.

Viking has informed its crew members that the company will start reducing staff to minimum operational levels. Therefore many crew will be sent home in the following period and they will continue to receive 50% monthly salary once at home. The company will work with the air travel supplier to bring as many crew members home as soon as possible. The crew was advised to be patient and bear in mind that the global travel is dealing with a lot of international and local restrictions and that it may take some time to get everyone home.

How will all this work?

The Hotel crew which will remain on board will be given every second day off, and they will receive 60% of their full monthly salary. No one on the ships will be working more than 40 hours a week. The crew who will continue to work on board will be required to perform their normal duties including deep cleaning, maintaining the safety of the ship or attending training, etc.

Deck and technical personnel will be required to continue working as normal to keep the ships maintained and safe, therefore they will continue to receive a full monthly salary.

The Viking crew who are currently at home, waiting to join the ship will receive 50% of their monthly salary (this is a full month salary, not a basic salary). Those crew who are at home, who have had their joining date postponed due to the Pandemic will receive 50% of their salary. This payment will begin 4 weeks after the original sign-on date has passed.

Viking shipboard employees (on board or back home) will receive the payment onto their ShipMoney account card each month, around the normal salary date. This is not a one moth financial support for the crew back home and the company will revise its plan after three month period.