Ship collision: Workers of the Swiss tourist boat company complained about low wages – NEW VIDEO

The crew and captains of the luxury tourist boats complained about too much overtime, constant fluctuation and low wages endangering even the security of the Danube trips – Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen (SRF; English: Swiss Radio and Television) reported in April.

Only 7 survivors

According to index.hu, the Swiss news outlet talked even about the Viking Cruises in its report. This is the company whose ship collided with a riverboat (Hableány) on Wednesday in Budapest. The riverboat capsized and sank in just seconds with 34 people on board, including South Korean passengers and Hungarian crew. There are only seven survivors, authorities found so far 7 bodies and are still searching for 21 people. As we reported before, the Ukrainian captain of the Swiss cruise ship was detained after he was questioned as a suspect, police have said. His attorney said that the captain did not break any rules.

Photos about the accident are HERE while you can watch what happened below:

In the report of the Swiss Radio and Television, a Romanian man said that it was the worst 22 day of his life while he was serving on board of such a tourist boat like the one collided. He added that he felt himself as if he had been a slave. They had to work 15/24 for seven days, which was even more than the 48-72 hours per week overtime included in their contract. Therefore, he quit after 3 weeks and got 809 EUR for 22 days which equals

4 EUR/hour salary.

According to the Swiss news outlet, the tourist boat business is one of the most flourishing segments of tourism in Europe with an average annual increase of 10 pc. There are already more than 300 ships circulating on the large rivers of Europe offering luxury conditions for their passengers who pay 1000-2000 Swiss francs for a one-week trip.

Accidents are caused by human error

How these companies treat their employees is another question. They employ altogether 2,500 sailors and 12 thousand people working in the restaurants and bars of the vessels. Since work is hard and hours are long, there are ships on which

half of the crew quit in 2-3 months.

According to captains of such boats, high fluctuation and the lack of appropriate workforce has an impact even on the security. For example, a floatel hit one of the pillars of a bridge in Duisburg because of human failure two years before. In that accident, more than 20 people were injured.

According to the association of the Swiss cruise companies, they stick themselves to the rules and pay more money or give extra day offs for their employees working overtime. Daniel Buchmüller, president of the Viking Cruises, a company based in Basel, Switzerland, did not want to answer index.hu’s questions regarding what the former Romanian employee of the company told about his work and why he quit swiftly. Mr Buchmüller highlighted that

they keep the international regulations

and they do not ask their employees to work more than 48 hours of overtime per week. He added that the net monthly salary of their dishwashers who get the lowest wage from the company is 1,800 EUR. At the same time, he acknowledged that most accidents are caused by human error.

We reported HERE about a man working in the Danube tourist boat industry who said that because of the many vessels running simultaneously on the stream, such a catastrophe like the one that happened on Wednesday was predictable.

Source: index.hu