Cruise Director Awarded €130,000 In Court After 18 Years On Temporary Contracts

A cruise director has been awarded around €130,000 after court ruled that the company unlawfully kept him on temporary contracts for 18 years despite using him as a long-term employee.

The Bari Labour Court ruled that the former Costa Cruises cruise director, from Taranto, should be treated as a permanent employee after working on Costa Cruises ships from 2003 to 2021. During that time, he was reportedly employed under 51 separate contracts.

According to the Italian newspaper ANSA, the court found that the company had relied on his work for years while continuing to use fixed-term contracts, rather than recognising him as a permanent member of staff.

Judge Agnese Angiuli partially accepted the worker’s appeal, which was supported by lawyers Fabrizio Del Vecchio and Antonello Schinaia. The court ordered that he be rehired and paid around €130,000, plus interest. The sum was calculated using his final salary and years of service.

Why The Ruling Matters To Cruise Crew

Short-term contracts are standard across much of the cruise industry. Most crew members are hired for a set period at sea before taking leave and later returning under a new contract.

For many hotel, catering and housekeeping staff, contracts typically last between four and ten months, often followed by several weeks off before the next assignment. Senior positions such as captains, hotel directors and cruise directors usually work shorter rotations, often around three to four months at a time.

This rotating system is a normal part of cruise ship operations. Unlike land-based jobs, ships need crew to regularly rotate on and off throughout the year, meaning fixed-term contracts are widely used across the industry.

The issue in this case was not simply the use of temporary contracts. The court found that the cruise director’s employment had effectively become continuous after 51 contracts over 18 years. In practice, the role no longer appeared temporary, despite still being structured through repeated short-term agreements.

Are Cruise Directors Usually Permanent?

Cruise directors are not usually “permanent” employees in the same way as office workers on land. Even highly experienced cruise directors who stay with the same company for years normally work in scheduled rotations, with each period on board covered by a separate contract or assignment.

There are permanent-style jobs within the cruise industry, but these are more common ashore in areas such as management, sales, marketing, finance and port operations.

At sea, even senior officers and entertainment staff often work under rotational systems. Some may have long-term employment relationships with a cruise line, but still alternate between periods on board and leave at home.

That distinction is important because maritime employment works differently from most land-based industries. Courts may accept that rotating contracts are necessary for ship operations, but they can also examine whether repeated fixed-term agreements are being used fairly or simply to avoid granting the protections linked to permanent employment.

Why This Case Was Different

This ruling is unlikely to be easy for most crew members to copy.

Costa Cruises says its current fleet flies the Italian flag, and the company has long been closely linked to Italy. That gave this case a stronger connection to Italian and European labour rules.

Many other large cruise ships are registered in countries such as the Bahamas, Panama, Bermuda, Malta or Liberia. In maritime law, the ship’s flag state is very important because it helps decide which national rules apply on board.

Suggested read: Why Cruise Ships Register In The Bahamas

The Maritime Labour Convention sets minimum rights for seafarers, including written employment agreements, wages, rest hours, leave, repatriation and complaint procedures, but enforcement is largely tied to flag states and port state checks.

This is why crew on American-owned cruise lines are not automatically covered by US employment law. A cruise company may be listed, based or managed in the United States, but its ships are often registered elsewhere. That can make claims about unfair dismissal, permanent status or local labour protections much harder.

Will This Lead To More Permanent Cruise Jobs?

The ruling may encourage some long-serving crew to look more closely at their own contracts, especially in Europe. It may also push cruise lines and hiring agencies to be more careful when using repeated fixed-term agreements for the same worker over many years.

But it is unlikely to end temporary contracts at sea.

Short contracts remain the standard model for cruise ship work. Ships need crew to rotate because life on board is intense, with long working days and weeks away from home. The Maritime Labour Convention also treats seafaring as a special type of work, with its own employment agreements and protections.

The bigger risk for cruise lines is not the use of short contracts by itself. It is the repeated use of short contracts for the same person, in the same role, over many years, where the work appears to be permanent in all but name.

For cruise workers, the message is more limited but still important. This case shows that repeated temporary contracts can be challenged in the right legal setting. However, the result depends heavily on the worker’s nationality, the ship’s flag, the employer named in the contract, the country where the case is brought, and whether local labour law has a strong enough connection to the job.

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