Employee Actions Cost Princess $40 Million Fine

Princess Cruises has agreed to plead guilty to seven felony counts related to Princess crew members deliberately polluting and then covering it up. Princess will pay a $40 million fine, but all Carnival brands calling at US ports (eight lines) are being required to take remedial action to ensure it won't happen again, and they will be monitored by the government for five years.

The fine is the largest ever imposed for intentional polluting by maritime vessels. The acts were performed by crew members apparently believing they were being directed by other mid-level management employees to save the company money. Carnival had policies in place prohibiting the practices in which the employees were engaging, and there were procedures in place to monitor what was being discharged from the ships. The problem for Princess and Carnival was that the employees were circumventing these, and management's actual oversight was insufficient to catch the violations.

The complete story appeared in the December 1 edition of Cruise News Daily.