dirty little secret of the penalty rates debate, page-22

If you ever do a ship's cruise , the day it starts you are hit with about US $12 per person per day gratuity....
The bursar will tell you this is to subsidise the crew's wages who obviously are below award standards.

The company probably does not pay them an award wage because this adds to the cost of the cruise ticket and people may shy away from that cruise actual price...

My experience with ships especially tours...they more or less double the price to you what you could attain off the ship.
Point being these gratuities could be halved into the company coffers , I daresay the captain takes a big slice and so do the bridge
sailors and bursing staff leaving the ones that do the hard laborious tasks to the residue... a pittance.

As an Australian I abhor this conduct....the company should pay these staff at least the award wage ....and probably penalties...I also detest the tipping system....I do not wish to prolong this behaviour so I cancel this type of gratuity...I do however tip f0r good service and a big tip for the cabinman...as I feel at least these folk will get some benefit.