22 in Filipino Crew Charge Abuses, Abandon Cruise Ship

Charging sexual harassment, nepotism and other alleged abuses by their supervisors, 22 Filipino crewmen left the cruise ship Azure Seas in San Pedro before a three-day excursion this week to Ensenada.

The crewmen, who were scheduled to be flown home Tuesday to the Philippines, submitted a list of written complaints as they left the vessel Monday, cruise officials acknowledged.

The complaints include allegations that the crewmen were subjected to homosexual advances by at least one supervisor, that they were fed leftover food and that they were unfairly cursed at, demoted and passed over for promotion in favor of friends and relatives of the supervisors.

The crewmen refused to work unless the two supervisors named in their complaints were replaced, said Capt. Kevin Trivitt, in charge of San Pedro operations for Miami-based Admiral Cruises Inc.

Trivitt said the cruise line is investigating the charges, but that the crewmen refused to wait for the probe to be completed. The investigation, involving interviews with the ship’s captain and many of the remaining 350 crew members, began Tuesday during a stopover in San Diego and likely will continue for a week or two, cruise officials said.

“So far, we have not been able to locate anyone to substantiate any of the statements made by these guys,” said attorney Bill Collier, representing the cruise line.

“Basically, they gave the company an ultimatum--fire somebody or we won’t go back aboard ship,” Collier said. “The company felt it was inappropriate to do that without an investigation to establish the facts.”

The crew members presented written complaints to company representatives and met with reporters as they left the Azure Seas.

Rolando Austrie, 25, was quoted in wire service stories as saying he was approached by two male supervisors and offered promotions in exchange for sex. He was directed to one supervisor’s cabin, where “that supervisor embraced me and wanted to have sex with me,” Austrie said.

After he refused and left, he was relegated to the job of emptying trash bins, he said. Austrie said he was paid $230 a month.

Other complaints involve allegations that three-year veteran crewmen were passed over for promotions in favor of newly hired friends or relatives of the supervisors, said attorney Robert Nizich of the National Maritime Union, who attended the meeting with reporters.

Nizich, who stressed that he has no first-hand knowledge of the offenses, said one charge involved a crewman being struck in the face during a disagreement in the ship’s kitchen area. “He said he was told by one supervisor to perform a job one way, and another supervisor wanted it done another way,” Nizich said.

When the worker raised questions, the second supervisor allegedly hit him, Nizich said. The Maritime Union is trying to assist the crewmen even though they are not union members, he said.

“I was repeatedly told they liked their jobs. . . . However, they didn’t like the conditions they were being forced to work under,” Nizich said. He called the case one of the most unusual he has seen in eight years as a maritime attorney.

“I’ve never heard of 22 people just quitting like this,” he said. “For the most part, these are people making $500 a month. (But) making even $500 a month on these ships is a hell of a lot more than they’re going to be making in the Philippines.”

However, attorneys for Admiral Cruises said there was some evidence the group was “a solidarity effort” to try to protect a single crewman whose contract was not being renewed by the cruise line.

The fate of that employee, Josefino Fabrigaras, was one of the issues--along with promotion practices and food--that was discussed when the disgruntled employees met on Monday with the ship’s captain, Dimitrius Mylonas, according to attorney Geraldine Darrow.

Darrow, who interviewed Mylonas as she began the investigation Tuesday, said the captain did not recall any allegations of sexual harassment. When he talked with the crewmen, the captain tried to point out that the fate of one crewman was a separate issue from charges of poor treatment, according to Darrow.

But the crewmen wanted it to be dealt with at the same time, she said.

“They said, ‘If he goes, we go,’ ” Darrow said. “That was the basis of their decision to leave.”