Royal Caribbean has announced it is reducing its workforce by around 26 percent in the U.S. due to the coronavirus which is hitting the cruise industry hard.
Royal Caribbean Reduces Workers
The cruise company which owns Royal Caribbean International, Celebrity Cruises and several others has announced it is reducing workers by around 26 percent due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the hard-hit cruise industry.
Workers will either be laid off permanently or furloughed as the cruise company tries to save money during the suspension of operations around the world. This will only impact part of the 5,000 total workers in the United States.
On Wednesday Royal Caribbean Ltd releases the following statement:
Earlier today, we told our employees the difficult news that we were laying off or furloughing approximately 26 percent of our more than 5,000 coworkers in the US.
We earlier announced the early conclusion of many crew contracts.
The circumstances of the pandemic made this action unavoidable, and it hurts to part ways with so many good and talented people.
This comes as the cruise company is also ending crew member contracts early to help reduce the impact on its business. Right now we know cruise lines are working on arranging charter flights back home for crew members who still remain onboard ships.
The charter flights are being arranged by the cruise lines themselves and dealing with travel has proved to be tricky with many countries implementing restrictions. Many workers in the U.S. are working from home during this pandemic and construction on the new Royal Caribbean Headquarters at Port of Miami is on hold for now.
Also Read: Should I Hold Off on Booking My Cruise Vacation?
The company recently announced an extension on the suspension of cruise operations which is now through May 11, 2020. However, following other cruise lines such as Carnival cruises are expected to be on hold for much longer through June.
