Dive OPs who enforce 24 hour cancelation policy but can cancel last minute??

[outofofficebrb]

Dive Tutukaka (www.diving.co.nz). I am not sure, but some of the other operators may have similar policies. I just don't have any personal experience with what they would do since this is a rare occasion and I almost always use Dive Tutukaka when not diving off my own boat.

I LOVE Tutukaka. They are such a great operation and their employees are wonderful. They are the most thorough and best dive op I have come across in my travels.

 

[Steve_C]

My son has had a couple of flights on small shuttle airlines canceled for lack of enough passengers.

 

[Steve_C]

I have raised this issue before. I am not sure it is legal for DMs to work solely for tips. A dive operator may tell you they do in order to encourage you to tip generously, but I do not believe it is true.
In America, workers must receive minimum wage. In some jobs, such as waiting, they get a much smaller wage with the expectation that tips will make up the rest. If the tips do not make up the rest, the management MUST make up the rest for them. In many establishments, your tips go to the management and should be considered part of the total bill. The wait people get the same pay regardless of the tips. Any excess is pocketed by the management.

So you have me curious on this. Most of the DMs on the boats I have in mind also work as instructors, around the shop, filling tanks, etc. It is possible that they are not paid extra for going out on the boat so that technically the only thing they get for the boat trip is the tips. Also this is not a six pack. The minimum wage is so low that with 2 DM and 12 divers, to cover a five hour trip is only $80 which is much lower than the typical rate of tipping. Note that crew helps with schlepping gear from boat to the parking lot. I will check it out this summer. I do not think management keeps any of the tip money.

 

[boulderjohn]

So you have me curious on this. Most of the DMs on the boats I have in mind also work as instructors, around the shop, filling tanks, etc. It is possible that they are not paid extra for going out on the boat so that technically the only thing they get for the boat trip is the tips. Also this is not a six pack. The minimum wage is so low that with 2 DM and 12 divers, to cover a five hour trip is only $80 which is much lower than the typical rate of tipping. Note that crew helps with schlepping gear from boat to the parking lot. I will check it out this summer. I do not think management keeps any of the tip money.

Years ago I worked for a dive shop as a contract instructor. Some of the other instructors were also dive shop employees doing other things, like working retail. They were paid separately for doing the instruction. I don't remember how we contract instructors found this out, but when we learned that they made more for instructing than we did, we were upset. Explanations were given, but they made little sense. And then we figured it out. As employees, they had to make a least minimum wage on anything they did for the shop, including instruction. At the rate contract instructors were being paid, we often did not make minimum wage, but the shop figured that was OK because we were not employees.

Well, reality hit. According to the IRS rules, we were employees, not contract workers, and we had to be treated as such. We had to make minimum wage. That reality hit them after I left the shop and started working for another shop. That new shop had already figured out that according to IRS rules we were all employees, and they had us figure employee paperwork. However, they still did not pay minimum wage for many of the instructional jobs. I eventually left that shop as well, and I now pay myself.

 

[jjardin]

My daughter works as a "tank monkey" or "boat crew" in exchange for free classes and free diving when available. I'm pretty sure this violates a number of labor laws and is an attempt by the shop to circumvent the paperwork and liability for having folks on the books. Seems a little shady, but as long as they share tips when she works the boat and she gets to dive she seems happy with the arrangement.

 

[Wookie]

All of this talk of wages. It really depends on where the vessel sails, what kind of vessel it is, and a number of other factors.

A vessel sailing seaward of the boundary line must pay their deckhands $614 a month as of January 2016. It did not change for 2017 or 2018. If the vessel stays shoreward of the boundary line, they are required to follow the state minimum wage law. That's a 30 day working salary. So as long as the seaman is making $20 a day, all is good.

You are correct about the subcontract law, the tests for being a contractor fall in place here. Most crewmembers don't meet the requirements, as they have certain training they must have. In our case, as long as the crewmember was not in a safety sensitive position (gas blender, chef, steward) they could be subcontractors. If they required training (Captains, mates, deckhands) they were employees. If the vessel ever charters to any branch of the federal government, they must meet certain salary minimums. A Ordinary Seaman is $114 a day, Able Seaman is $154 a day in Monroe County FL.

All crew are Jones Act qualified, which means they are covered by your Workman's Comp (or Jones Act) policy while working on your vessel in crew status. Crew status means "In service to the vessel". We had to be very careful when we ran tech trips, as we had mates (who tied in the shot line), gas blenders (who filled cylinders) The DSO (who reviewed but did not dictate dive plans) and the regular crew. Those folks were there for tips and diving, and we never asked them for more then their jobs, as to do so would have placed them in service to the vessel and therefore would have qualified them as Jones Act crew, which costs me about $1,000 a head for insurance.

 

[Wookie]

I went back and looked up the CFR regarding pay for American Crewmembers. 29 CFR 783.23 - Pay standards for “newly covered” employees requires that we pay seamen $1.25 an hour and overtime over 40. 29 CFR 783 is written so you really don't have to pay a crewmember much of anything, but you're not allowed to keel haul them much either.

 

[Wookie]

And if they live on the boat, you may deduct their room and board from their pay.

 

[Scubamat]

I've had one dive 'cancelled' last minute, but that was mutual decision. Weather was worst than expected but still divable. The boat and about 3/4 of the divers showed up had a talk and decided as a group to come back tomorrow (when the weather was much nicer). I was both disappointed and glad, I had a 2hour drove to the dock but was happy with how it was handled.

The key is communications.

 

[TMHeimer]

My daughter works as a "tank monkey" or "boat crew" in exchange for free classes and free diving when available. I'm pretty sure this violates a number of labor laws and is an attempt by the shop to circumvent the paperwork and liability for having folks on the books. Seems a little shady, but as long as they share tips when she works the boat and she gets to dive she seems happy with the arrangement.

She works for free. I'm glad she's happy. Many "professional musicians" work for "free" and for "exposure". This degrades professionals.