Would you expect compensation from a live-aboard operator if

[vladimir]

If an employee came to work sick and you got sick afterwords and missed a few days of work would you expect your employer to pay you for the days you missed without charging your sick leave?

Or if "you" are the employer would you pay for an employees missed days because he caught someone elses illness?

We feel that when an employee takes a sick day we have paid him for the day he missed. Our employees don't get paid for the sick days they don't use, and we expect our staff not to use them if they are healthy.

 

[DandyDon]

But in fact, these forces were at least within their partial control. They could have had the infected crewmember stay home that week. They could have had someone HEALTHY prepare the food. They could have carried a bottle of dilliuted bleach around and sprayed every surface twice a day. They could have sanitized the rooms before the guests arived. They could have done several things, and it sounds like they failed to do any. This is pure neglagance on the side of the crew, and you should be compensated, as the unfortunate outcome was at least partially their fault.

Had they done everything in their power to avoid the spread, it would be a different story.

Not saying you're wrong, but do consider that the crew's home in on the boat - altho the company could have still put them in a hotel for the week. But replacing crew members on a remote island would be no simple task; would you rather have a marginally healthy crew member or someone who'd never worked on that boat before - chasing you down current in the dingy or whatever? And we have not heard the other side of this story...?

I pretty sure I would not have tipped in a case like this. Think of all the work the crew didn't do, ie: filling tanks, getting you in and out, being concerned with those that are in the water, maybe the crew should have tipped you :>)

Oh, I would have. Their work load was not significantly reduced...

We feel that when an employee takes a sick day we have paid him for the day he missed. Our employees don't get paid for the sick days they don't use, and we expect our staff not to use them if they are healthy.

Yep

 

[Damselfish]

It's a good thing when an employer has the common sense to discourage people from coming to work sick, and making other people sick. Granted a liveaboard is a special situation, but it seems there could be better policies around this.

It gets back to what is under their control. If everyone gets sick from a newly arrived passenger your week, there is less that can be done. But when crew has already all been sick with something that obviously spreads, and one is still sick, it's a pretty good bet they're going to give it to the next batch of guests and it seems dumb for that crewmember to be on that week. Boats run shorthanded sometimes, not ideal but seems better than the pretty sure odds of making everyone else sick. And as mentioned there's other things that can be done.

Of course, the boat will not refund a sick passengers money even if they're likely to make everyone else sick, or the money of people that don't want to board and get sick. It does put the passengers in a no win situation.

 

[djanni]

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A ScubaBoard Staff Message...

morning all,

fyi, i have emailed the dive operator being discussed here and invited them to make comment

cheers

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He already has a link to this thread. I sent it to him yesterday right after posting it.

 

[vladimir]

Yes I would want to be compensated and no I would not expect to get it.

They are not to blame for a virus a passenger brought aboard.

And yes I would still sue to try and recover damages. Good luck.

Jim, it seems like you're saying that, in your opinion, Explorer Adventures is not at fault here, but you'd still sue them. Do you see any problem with that?

 

[murdrcycle]

Hello, I can imagine you feel like this, but in Holland we would say ' these are forces beyond your (and their) control' .

I agree with others that this was within their control. Except that I believe that not only was it marginally within their control, it was completely within their control. If over half of the crew was that sick, and the previous batch of customers had also gotten sick, then they should have just quarantined the boat. To put it in a different context, what if this was a restaurant? What if well over half of the employees got sick, and nearly half of the customers that visited over a 2 week time got sick? What if you show up there sometime during week 3 and you end up getting sick? Isn't that grossly negligent?

If an employee came to work sick and you got sick afterwords and missed a few days of work would you expect your employer to pay you for the days you missed without charging your sick leave?

Or if "you" are the employer would you pay for an employees missed days because he caught someone elses illness?

Actually, yes, they do. When I get sick at work my company doesn't make sure that the illness wasn't spread from employee to employee contact. But this isn't a fair comparison. This would be similar if the op was one of the dive crew. We aren't talking about something spreading form employee to employee - and in such a situation the employees are being compensated for their time and the risks that come along with it. We are talking about employee to customer - and in that situation the customer is assuming certain risks, but certainly not those due to negligence on the part of the company they are giving their hard-earned dollars to.

 

[Jim Kerr]

Jim, it seems like you're saying that, in your opinion, Explorer Adventures is not at fault here, but you'd still sue them. Do you see any problem with that?

Actually no, I don't,

 

[peterbj7]

On the facts as stated, in this case I would press for compensation, and ultimately I would expect to get it. The operator has a reasonable duty of care in what is a well recognised situation, and he didn't comply with that duty of care.

However, I can think of two liveaboard trips I've done which didn't work out as planned. On neither did I or anyone else (so far as I know) even contemplate asking for compensation. One was in the Irish Sea, when heavy seas at the dive sites prevented us from even leaving dock for a full two days. Our attitude to that was that when you plan on diving in the north Atlantic you know that you are at the mercy of the weather. If the boat had never set sail then I would have expected a full refund, but given that we did go out I expected to pay in full.

Another was in the Red Sea, when a storm one night was so severe we lost one compressor overboard and the ship was sufficiently damaged that we had to go back to port, losing two days of our trip. We all felt grateful to have made it back at all, and reckoned that the operator's loss was much greater than ours.

There is a culture, part of the litigious frame of mind, that if something has gone wrong someone must be responsible, and that person should pay compensation. I believe we in Britain have not so far gone too far down that track, certainly not as far as the Americans seem to have.

I used to work at a company in the food industry, in England. It was a summary dismissal offence to come to work when you knew you were ill and probably infectious. Despite that, they had a very low rate of malingering.

 

[vladimir]

Actually no, I don't,

Please elaborate. It sounds like you are admitting that you have no personal integrity, and I'd prefer to think I've misconstrued something. How do you justify suing somebody who you do not believe has wronged you in any way?

 

[Alex777]

To those who are thinking of suing, bear these points in mind:

- the applicable law is the law of the Turks & Caicos Islands, NOT THE USA
- the action must be brought in the Supreme Court of the Turks & Caicos Is.
- there is no such thing as a class action there
- your TCI lawyer will want to be paid up front
- as a foreign-resident plaintiff, you may have to post a bond to cover the other side's court costs if you lose
- this will not be a jury trial
- etc.