NCL America has agreed to pay a total of $485,000 to seven crew members fired from various positions on the Pride of Aloha.
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed a lawsuit in August 2006 in U.S. District Court on behalf of the seven men. The federal agency claimed NCL fired the employees because of their Yemeni/Middle Eastern nationality or because they were Muslims.
According to one account, one of the plaintiffs asked another crew member where the security office and engine room was, according to a report in the Honolulu Star Bulletin. That crew member grew alarmed and alerted the security office, the newspaper reported.
NCL requested a federal investigation, but the FBI concluded that the workers were not a security threat, reported the Honolulu Star Bulletin, but NCL still fired six of the men, and the seventh quit the next day for fear of being fired.
NCL agreed to pay the crew members as part of a two-year consent decree resolving the case, but admitted no wrongdoing in settling the case.
NCL also agreed "to revise its policies to ensure a workplace that promotes equal employment opportunity, to hire an EEO consultant and to provide training to its managers and employees on the company's equal employment policy and complaint procedure."